Gascoyne impressed by TF104

Gascoyne, who began work at Toyota six weeks ago after leaving Renault, believes that the Gustav Brunner-penned TF104 chassis is a good starting point.

"It's been a very exciting time for me personally," said Gascoyne. "The new car has really impressed me. Obviously we want to be racing at the front-end of the field, and we hope that this car is step forward that will close the gap to the top teams.

"My role as technical director chassis means that ultimately I am responsible for the day-to-day co-ordination of the entire chassis development. Our fundamental goal must be to make Toyota a team that can mix it with the leading teams in the future and that will require a longer-term vision."

Brunner said: "The car is an evolution. Last year's TF103 was a competitive package, but we were unable to get everything out of it and the TF104 is a logical progression on that. We tried not to reinvent the wheel, but nothing has been left untouched, we have looked at everything on the car.

"We have made improvements and evolutions in all areas of the chassis, with a significant redesign of all of the car's critical internal components. Again, we have made big steps forward in the aerodynamics, as well as making the whole car lighter and stiffer."

Luca Marmorini, who was recently promoted to the role of technical director engine, said: "Our guiding principles when designing the RVX-04 have been to increase the durability, whilst simultaneously maintaining the driveability and the performance from 2003. I honestly do not think that there will be such a drop in horsepower with the new engines, but we have had to work a lot on the lifing."