Great Expectations: interview with Mike Gascoyne

A few years ago it would have been inconceivable for any of Formula One's big guns to consider risking their futures with Toyota.

The doubters believed that the Japanese manufacturer would never make it to the top of the sport - claiming they would be hindered by too much management interference from the big bosses in Tokyo and a lack of patience in trying to achieve results as quickly as possible.

How times have changed.

Heading into 2006, the buoyant team are surrounded by rumours linking them with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen and their car already appears to have the potential to be a winner in the new season.

In fact, if there were any doubts about Toyota's arrival as a 'Big Player', to use Willi Weber's phrase of this week, they were swiftly wiped away on the first morning of winter testing at the end of last year.

As most teams gathered in Barcelona in late November to begin development work on their interim models, Toyota stole a march on their rivals, and surprised the media to boot, when they chose to 'launch' their 2006 challenger.

That decision delivered a message not only about Toyota's commitment, but also about how the vast resources that the outfit enjoy are allowing the team to do things that some of their budget-strapped rivals are unable to do.

Fresh from the late season major revamp of the TF105 into the TF105B, Toyota pulled out all the stops to introduce their TF106 more than three months before the start of the 2006 campaign - and they are still working flat out to bring a host of developments onto the car before the season starts.

In terms of introducing new cars, there has been the traditional view that there are two options for teams. Bring your car out early to iron out reliability problems before the start of the season but lose valuable wind-tunnel time allowing you to hone its aerodynamics. Or launch late, maximising the time in the wind-tunnel to perfect its design, but run the risk of not sorting out any mechanical troubles.

For Toyota, though, there has become a third way. Launch the car early to iron out the reliability issues but then continue devoting resources to upgrading the car and fine-tuning the aerodynamics. It's an expensive way of doing things, because in effect you will design and build a lot of parts that will never get raced, but if you have got the money to do it, then it makes perfect sense.

Technical director Mike Gascoyne is adamant that the team's approach is spot on - even though he acknowledged it may not be the cheapest in this time when 'cost-cuts' is an F1 buzzword.

"If you roll the car out early and re-bodywork it as late as possible, then you get the best of both worlds," he said from his office at Toyota's headquarters in Cologne. "The downside is that you throw away a lot of bits that you never go racing with, even though you have to design and make those parts.

"If you start early and choose that route then it works very well. We are not producing our final aero package until the second or third week of February, and we couldn't roll the whole car out that late."

There is little doubt that Toyota's decision to go early with their car has allowed the team to get a huge head start in understanding their new machine - something that is even more important for them after their switch to Bridgestone tyres.

As testing resumed this week, and ahead of the team's official launch in France on Saturday, Gascoyne is pretty content with the way that the TF106 programme has gone so far. There have been a few niggles, but then again that is exactly why a team goes out there for testing.

"It's been reasonably good," he says. "Obviously most of our work has been concerned with Bridgestone and getting the car set up around the tyres - so we can understand what sort of problems we are going to have. In general, that has been pretty positive.

"On the tyre front, we've hit the ground running and having the car out early was part of that process. We have a good technical relationship with Bridgestone already and undoubtedly the change in regulations (to allow tyre changes again) is something that takes away one of their major weaknesses. I think everyone is positive about them.

"Both drivers like the feel of the car and are happy with it. Aerodynamically, it is not as its final version yet, and we have got a big new package coming on that front. But mechanically it is a big step up, it's been reliable, it's done some reasonable mileage, and I think we are a long way ahead of the game. To have done all that testing last year, knowing what you need to do to go forward and solve problems, was very useful."

Getting reliability spot on is going to be more important than ever this season - with all-new V8 engines thrust into action. Some manufacturers had enough trouble getting tried-and-tested V10s to last two races in 2005, and now they will have to achieve that task with higher-revving smaller power-units.

Ally those demands to an increased mileage in qualifying and there is the chance of big penalties for those car makers who do not get on top of their reliability. The start of the season will, according to Gascoyne, deliver rich rewards for those who can complete the miles.

"The change to V8 will undoubtedly affect people from a reliability point early on - especially with the two-race thing," he explains. "That will provide plenty of varied results at the start of the season. People are talking up that Renault and McLaren will be very strong, but I think it will be pretty varied."

Gascoyne has been through too many seasons in the sport to know that nothing can be taken for granted with a new car. The job a team does is only in the end judged by how that compares to the opposition.

And with winter testing throwing up this time around so many different car/engine configurations (V8s, restricted V10s, V10s simulating V8s, etc) the job of trying to gauge where a team stands is harder than it has been for some time.

"I think it's going to be difficult to tell where everyone stands for a little while yet. Certainly from testing with the other Bridgestone runners, we think we are in reasonably good shape, but it is hard to know in winter testing what fuel levels people are running and what people are doing with their engines.

"But I think one of the things that you can say about us as an organisation now is that we are not a new team any more. And if you look at the level of progress from 2004 to 2005, then I think we are continuing that and we are in a situation where we know what we are doing, and that should be good enough.

"You can always sit there and try to analyse what everyone else it up to, but you've got to get on with your own programme. The people at the front are not following anyone else and we will do our own thing as well."

Gascoyne believes that Toyota have now truly come of age. Such is the complexity involved in designing a top-line F1 car that it takes years to get the organisation in place to make it happen.

He spent his first year at the team purely sorting the infrastructure out and, although the TF105 was the first car that he was able to get some proper input into from the start, he still thinks the process of necessary improvement had not reached its conclusion yet.

Only now, after two full years at Toyota, does he think that the team are delivering something that is worthy of their full potential.

"I think this year ultimately we have designed a quicker car," he says. "When I arrived it was a year until we rolled the car out and we spent that year getting things right. There was very little time before 2005 to implement procedures, but now we are a further year down the process.

"Just from the designing-a-car point of view, we are 15 months on from that point, not three months, and we've built on 2005. We've developed, in-house, a style that is more experienced at doing things correctly and I think that will be evident come Bahrain."

The focus on an improved Toyota will not just be on their car this year, though, because both their drivers are heading into 2006 with points to prove. Jarno Trulli still has to shake off his 'good qualifier/poor racer' tag despite some strong podium finishes last year, while Ralf Schumacher will have to further justify his high wages, after being outperformed by his teammate for much of last year.

Gascoyne is not unduly worried about his driver pairing. He worked with Trulli at Renault and is aware of the criticisms the Italian gets for his race pace, but he insists that it is much the team's responsibility to sort the situation out as it is the driver.

"I think Jarno showed in Bahrain and Malaysia last year that if we give him the car, then he can deliver," explains Gascoyne. "He is a very sensitive driver and very, very good at not chasing the car over the first two days of a race meeting. It means he then has a car that he knows really well and he uses that knowledge to his advantage in qualifying.

"But if the balance changes after qualifying then he is very sensitive to that. When he drove alongside Fernando at Renault, we saw that when the car changes, Alonso is much better at coping with it.

"I think that if we can give him a car that has the same balance in the race as it does in qualifying, then he can produce the same pace. He does struggle if the car changes, and I think it is our job to give him a car that gives him that confidence."

That job, of giving a car that Trulli feels comfortable with, manifested itself in the first running of the TF106. The Italian had been unhappy with the steering characteristics of the TF105B at the end of last season and, with the front-end of that car being brought into the 2006 model, that lack of feel from the front of the car left him slightly concerned.

"The car (the TF105B) was very different, it had a very different feeling, and Jarno had very little time to get used to it," continues Gascoyne. "We made a late call to go with it and he had very little time in the car, which made it a struggle for him.

"It had a lot better front end and it fixed a problem which Jarno did not have. What we have done with the TF106 is align that (the new front) with a much better rear-end and that has rebalanced the car. And he has had more time to get used to the different feel.

"The problems he did experience (at the first test) have evaporated, and to be honest we didn't need to do much. The problems went away, as did his grizzles. He is very, very positive and very happy and having time in the car has helped him."

Of course, Trulli's loss with the front-end of the TF105B was teammate Schumacher's gain. He revelled with the new feeling he got from the front of the car and secured his first pole in a Toyota at Japan before finishing on the podium in China. His end of season results leapfrogged him ahead of Trulli in the points table, despite being outpaced for much of the year.

Gascoyne thinks that Trulli's performances in 2005 will have acted as a wake-up call to Schumacher - who will be determined to not let himself lose out in the inter-team battle this season.

"I always said before they drove together that Jarno was going to qualify well and Ralf was going to be strong in the races," explained Gascoyne. "I think Ralf would look back at last year and think he was closer to Jarno's pace in the races, but if you start five places further behind all the time then you are going to struggle.

"For sure, he struggled with the feel of the car, but I think he is now feeling pretty confident for a stronger performance."

It appears that everything is in place for Toyota to go one step better than last season, and deliver that elusive maiden victory. Gascoyne himself is never one to hold back in making bold predictions - it is his bullishness that makes him so well liked by the F1 media - but even he is reluctant to talk things up too much next year.

The team have few complaints about how they performed in 2005, even though the United States Grand Prix farce almost certainly cost them third overall in the Constructors' Championship. But that maiden win is clearly what the team are desperate to achieve. Gascoyne feels the same.

"I think personally, yes, it has to be a target," he says. "If you look to do better as an organisation, then obviously you have got to stand on the top step.

"Certainly when I was at Renault it was in our third year that we won a race, and it is a very natural progression. So from my own personal point of view, I would be disappointed if we did not do it, but there are a lot of factors in it, like tyres, and for sure there has to be some luck."

But if there is talk about wins then obviously there has to be a thought given to a championship challenge. Could Toyota's early start give them enough of an advantage at the start of the year to allow them to enter the title chase?

"I think any team, once you are in the top four - and Toyota were top four, even a top three team taking Indy out of it, and it would be wrong to design a car that you think couldn't challenge," admits Gascoyne.

"We have got momentum with us, it is easy to make grandiose claims and I don't want to do, but I think you can say we are confident for the season ahead."

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