Toyota End Speculations and Confirm Signing Ralf

The Toyota Formula One team confirmed today they have signed German Ralf Schumacher for three years, beginning with the 2005 season.

The announcement was expected for quite some time, with widespread speculations on the German's future at the Cologne-based team running since early this year.

Toyota said in a statement this morning that the second race seat for the 2005 season will be decided on towards the end of the season. "In the meantime," the team said, "Toyota will not comment on any speculation or rumours surrounding the remaining race seat until all contractual issues have been finalised."

"It is with pleasure that we can announce Ralf as one of Toyota's race drivers for the 2005 season," Toyota's team principal Tsutomu Tomita said in a team statement. "He has proven himself to be an extremely quick racing driver in his career, and I am sure that his vast experience will be extremely beneficial to our team.

"We have not finalised who will partner Ralf in 2005, and this is something we are in no rush to decide on. We are happy with the job that Cristiano [da Matta] and Olivier [Panis] are doing for us and both of them are under consideration for the remaining race seat next season. There are still 8 races of the season to go and everyone at Toyota is fully focussed on improving our level of performance to gain as many championship points as we can."

Toyota entered Formula One in 2002 and are currently lying in seventh place in the Constructors' Championship, with eight points.

Ralf Schumacher is currently recovering from a high-speed crash at the US GP last month. Whether he will return to racing at Williams this season remains uncertain.