Trulli: Too early to expect wins
Jarno Trulli believes it is too early for Toyota to expect grand prix victories in 2005. After testing the new TF105 chassis for the first time at Jerez on Thursday, the Italian admitted that the team does not yet have the experience to fight at the front
"I don't think it's reasonable to expect a grand prix victory for Toyota this year," he said. "Not in normal circumstances, no, because there's no way we can beat teams that have a lot more experience that us.
"I think the pressure is there to achieve the victories in the next few years, but no one is reasonably expecting Toyota to win a grand prix in 2005. It's early days for us too."
Trulli, like his new team-mate Ralf Schumacher, came away from his first run in the TF105 impressed by its characteristics. "There are clear improvements in areas like the stiffness of the car - the way it rides over the bumps," he explained. "I can't really say much about the braking, because there's less grip, so that affects the braking too.
"You feel everything is on the limit, but with time and a bit of set-up work we'll get part of the lost grip."
Last year's Monaco Grand Prix winner also confessed that new aerodynamic regulations, designed to slow the cars down, have completely changed the way latest generation of F1 cars behave on track. "It feels lighter all over the place, under braking and while cornering," he said. "There's a general loss of grip but, as I said before, we'll get part of it back when we'll have the definitive aerodynamic package on the car.
"This is not the aero package we'll run in Melbourne, so there's a lot more to come from the wind tunnel to the track and, of course, during the season the situation will get better and better. There are quite a few things missing in the aero package, things that are being developed in the wind tunnel and that will give us a clear step forward in performance. But at the moment the car feels lighter, more difficult to drive and, therefore, it's easier to make mistakes."
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