Toyota's 2005 Car will be Ready by Christmas

Toyota will have their 2005 Formula One car on the test track from the start of the New Year, according to technical director Mike Gascoyne.

"The TF105 is being finished at the moment and it should be ready before Christmas (December 25th)," he said in a team interview.

"That means that we will be (able) to run it as soon as the Christmas and New Year test ban has been lifted in January," added the Briton. "We will have a totally new aerodynamic package in Melbourne but we want to run the new car as soon as possible in order to get it reliable for the Australian Grand Prix."

The season-opening race is on March 6th. Some other teams plan to test 'hybrid cars' before unveiling their new challengers at the end of January.

Toyota have an all-new lineup next year of Italian Jarno Trulli and Germany's Ralf Schumacher. Gascoyne has said the Germany-based team must improve on their eighth place overall this year.

"It (the team) has to start delivering from the start of next year, there's absolutely no doubt about that," he said after last month's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

Gascoyne said he was confident the team had the right drivers in place.

"Both Ralf and Jarno are drivers who need to be in the right frame of mind to perform consistently, and a lot of that has to do with having the right team and the right environment around them," he said.

"We have got to make sure that we give them a car with which they can do their best, and that we create the environment where they can do that consistently."