Toyota Report – A Hint of Disappointment

The Toyota team missed their home Grand Prix and tonight finds themselves saddened by not having been able to warm the hearts of the many spectators who supported them.

Indeed, Trulli finishes in 13th position out of the 15 remaining cars, and Schumacher retired after several incidents that marked his race, due of course to the track conditions.

The Japanese team must quickly recover because in just one week, it will be in China, Japan’s neighboring country.

Jarno Trulli – 13th

“It was a very difficult race from start to finish. Even behind the safety car, the conditions were really bad. There was a lot of spray, and it was hard to see anything on the straight. Behind the first safety car, unfortunately, I made a mistake. While I was warming up my tires, I spun like many others.”

“Because of this, I lost several positions. The conditions were really difficult and I was suffering from aquaplaning and very low grip. I think it was a tough afternoon for everyone and obviously I’m disappointed with this result.”

Ralf Schumacher – withdrawal

“We had difficult moments throughout the weekend and today it continued. Unfortunately, my radio stopped working halfway through the race. Water got into my controls and messed everything up. The engineers fixed this issue.”

“It was not a very pleasant race due to the rain, which made the track really slippery and there was zero visibility when we were racing behind the safety car at the start. There isn’t much more to say about this weekend. Our hopes rest on a better result next week in China.”

Tadashi Yamashina – Team Director

“Today was very difficult for us. Towards the end of the race, on Ralf’s car, the main electronic box failed due to water in the cockpit, but the team did everything to fix the problem so Ralf could continue and race in front of our Japanese supporters.”

“For Jarno, we still need to analyze what happened because obviously the car was not competitive. We need to focus our energy on improving the grip and aerodynamics. We have to work very hard to make improvements. Our car was not performing well in these conditions, but now we will do our best for the Chinese Grand Prix.”

“I would like to congratulate the Fuji Speedway for hosting this race for the first time in 30 years. The facilities here are excellent and the race was well organized. It is a great frustration not to have achieved the result we had hoped for.”