Formula 1 News

2008 French GP, practice: Toyota quotes 

Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race & Test: “We ran through our complete programme without any issues at all, so that was a productive day for us. The main areas we focused on were tyres and the level of downforce that we want to run in the race. By the second session the track was already in quite good shape. So the data on the tyres was representative and that should give us enough to make our decisions for the race on Sunday. Jarno put in a good, consistent, long run in the afternoon and while we still have to work on the set-up for both drivers, we collected all the information that we needed.”

Timo Glock: “That was a difficult start to the weekend. The tyres are just not working for me at the moment and that makes the car very difficult to drive. I can’t get the peak out of the tyres for the first lap so I am not getting the lap time, then I get massive graining and a big drop-off. So we have work to do but I remain hopeful. After our good result in Montreal, we had a positive test last week in Barcelona and collected data in all areas aimed at improving the car both mechanically and aerodynamically. We’ll have to see how much progress the other teams have made but we should aim to score points.”

Jarno Trulli: “Today we made it through a lot of work on tyres and set-up and the car felt good in general. It has been hot so the track conditions were changing a lot over the course of the two sessions. We still have to solve some set-up issues in order to find more speed as the car’s handling is crucial here. The track surface is very dark and it is quickly affected by the sun so it can suddenly become very slippery. You have to prevent that and figure out what balance you might end up with in the race. But Toyota has generally been competitive here so I hope we can do well this weekend.”

source: Toyota