Toyota Replace da Matta with Zonta as of Hungary

The Toyota Formula One team announced today that test driver Ricardo Zonta will replace Cristiano da Matta for the remaining races of the 2004 season, starting with the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Zonta, who was running the third car in Friday practices this year, will be replaced in turn by the team's test driver, Australian Ryan Briscoe.

Toyota said in a statement that Brazilian da Matta, who joined the team last year after winning the ChampCar championship in the United States, will continue to be employed by Toyota for the remainder of the year. The team said he could "consequently still be called upon to partake in any driving or marketing-related activities" for the team.

Toyota did not detail the reasons why da Matta is being replaced mid-season, but team principal Tsutomu Tomita stated the primary reason was a chance to evaluate Zonta ahead of a decision over the 2005 drivers line up.

"We revised our original plans after we reviewed the results of the last three Grands Prix," Tomita said. "Ricardo Zonta consistently performed very well, as indeed he also did in the first half of the 2004 season. We believe it is fair to offer Ricardo the chance to show his potential in full race conditions, before we enter into the final step of our driver evaluation for the 2005 season.

"We decided to retain Olivier Panis as a race driver for the rest of this season, based on the fact that he is the driver who has secured the team's best race result of the year so far (5th in Indianapolis) and has collected the higher number of championship points (5). Cristiano da Matta will remain a Panasonic Toyota Racing driver until the end of 2004 and could still be called upon to undertake activities accordingly."

Zonta has been testing for Toyota since last year. Previously, he raced alongside World Champion Jacques Villeneuve at BAR in the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

Toyota have already announced they have signed Ralf Schumacher for next season, however the team stated they were in no rush to decide who to sign for the second seat, and while Jarno Trulli is regarded in the paddock as the man most likely to team up with Ralf, the team said they will make a decision only towards the end of the year and could still decide to retain one of their existing drivers.