Toyota news

Both Toyota and Renault have not had the best of starts to the season, lagging behind the McLarens and Ferraris and even the BMWs.

However, Renault have at least scored more points than Toyota, with nine going to the reigning F1 Champions, while Toyota have scored just five.

But despite the math, and the fact that Toyota only had the faster car in one of this season’s three races, Ralf reckons Toyota’s TF107 the better car.

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Ralf is out of contract at the end of this season, and already rumours have begun suggesting that Toyota are wanting to replace him with BMW’s Nick Heidfeld.

While Ralf has struggled at the start of this season, bagging just one point in Australia, Heidfeld has become one of F1’s unsung heroes, claiming a trio of fourth-placed finishes.

However, Ralf’s manager, Hans Mehr, believes the 31-year-old needn’t worry about the rumours as he believes

Ralf has come under fire after two disappointing races in Malaysia and Bahrain, and already the rumour mill has Nick Heidfeld replacing him at Toyota next season.

However, the 31-year-old, who did manage to finish in the points at the season-opening Australia race, is confident that as soon as Toyota’s TF107 improves, so too will his results.

“I will answer on the track as soon as the car is competitive again. The best way to answer unjustified criticism is with good results,” the German said.

Schumacher has claimed just one point so far, that in the opening race in Australia, followed by lowly 15th and 12th-place finishes in Malaysia and Bahrain respectively.

The Japanese team are planning upgrades on the car for the next grand prix in Spain, although Schumacher is not optimistic they will prove too beneficial.

“The problem will go on for me for quite a while. It is not just going to disappear overnight,” said the downbeat 31-year-old German.

“The changes that we will make for Barcelona will probably not help all that much.”

That was a very tough race for me and I did a great job so I am happy both for myself and for the team. It’s my job to resist pressure and this result was due to driving experience and getting the best out of the car. The pit stops and the strategy were perfect and the car’s balance was good. But the problem was that it was very hard to battle in traffic because everyone else was quicker than me on the straights. I had to defend and attack at the same time

I feel I achieved our current maximum today. It is so tight to get into the top ten for us at the moment and in fact, I was tenth in Q2 by just a few hundredths of a second. After that, we made the most of the opportunity to qualify seventh, ahead of our direct competitors. That is the best start for our weekend. After working hard in practice, I think we have found a consistent balance for the race, and I am looking forward to scoring more points tomorrow.

Today we had a little bit of work to do because we didn’t test here over the winter. Nevertheless, I think that we are now just about there with the others. I did a tyre comparison at the end of session two and some set-up work over both and I now have quite a good idea where we’ll go for Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race. So far, then, we’re on target.”

It wasn’t so easy this morning but the track quickly improved so we improved as well.

The Sakhir circuit, home to the Bahrain GP, has proven to be one of the more difficult tracks for Toyota in the past and that trend continued during pre-season testing.

However, Trulli, who claimed his first points of the season in Malaysia on Sunday, is hoping that instead of punishing Toyota, this season’s Bahrain GP yields more points and perhaps a repeat of his 2005 podium result.

“Bahrain has proved difficult for us in the past,” said the Italian.

“This was the maximum I could do today - and in our situation at the moment, it feels like a podium finish. I am proud of the race I drove today, and the pace was better than during the rest of the weekend, and the car balance more stable and consistent. The start was particularly good, I was able to be aggressive in turns 1 and 2, and gain four places. The team is realistic about the position we are in at the moment, but they are working hard to understand

I don’t think we couldn’t have hoped for much better than P6 today. I am pretty pleased, especially because yesterday we seemed unable to find the form we had showed here at the test. However, since this morning, my car has been feeling better and everything started to go in the right direction. As the grip level rises, the car gets stronger, just like in Melbourne. Starting from 6th is a good position for tomorrow, even if the gap to those around me is tight.