Toyota Expect No Power Loss Despite Rules

Toyota's engine technical director Luca Marmorini expects the Japanese squad to start the season with the same kind of engine power that they finished the last one.

Despite having to double the life expectancy of their engine, Marmorini said Toyota will start the 2005 season with the same level of horsepower than they ended 2004.

"The first track tests with the hybrid version were very promising and I believe that the Toyota RVX-05 will be among the very best engines in Formula One in 2005," he said.

2005 will see changes imposed within the engine department with the introduction of a new rule that will force engines to last for two Grand Prix weekends. Hence the new RVX-05 model has been designed and built to last for two races, which equates to approximately 1,500km.

"Toyota's maxim of continuous improvement has again formed the backbone of engine development," said Marmorini. "Because of the change in engine regulations, the RVX-05 is an evolution of the RVX-04. We wanted to have enough time to modify long lead time parts like crankshafts and blocks, so we started working at an early stage to a two-race engine.

"Every part has had to go through extensive reliability testing on the transient dynos to ensure the engine can last for two race weekends. Like 2004, we have had to double the mileage of the engine without compromising the performance of the unit.

"A hybrid version of the RVX-05 with 2004-specification fixation points was fired up on the dyno in July 2004, giving us ample time for fine-tuning and further development before its first run with the 2005 specification fixation points in the TF105."

Marmorini also revealed Toyota had already started working on a new V8 engine in preparation for the 2006 season, when the FIA plans radical changes to reduce performance and costs for next year, and under the proposed new rules engine capacity would be reduced to 2.4 litre V8s from three litre V10s.

High resolution photos of the launch can be found at the Atlas F1 Photo Gallery.