This is the first of the “off-season” diaries and not much is happening in F1. The test ban is not lifted until late November and even though there is a lot of activity in the Panasonic Toyota Racing factory in Cologne (and in all other F1 team H.Qs.), most of the drivers spend November relaxing and “charging up the batteries” for a busy test season, which kicks off at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona on November 28.

I will also have a quiet November. During the season, there is not time for a proper holiday, so I is usually take a couple of weeks off in November. Having followed the F1 Circus around the globe since the Bahraini Grand Prix in March, just spending some weeks at home feels like a holiday!

November is also the time to look back at the past season. The F1 yearbooks are about to come out (and I have contributed to some of them) and I also think it is interesting to look back at some of the statistics of the 2006 season. The basic facts we already know: Panasonic Toyota Racing finished sixth in the Constructors´ World Championship with 35 points and Ralf Schumacher (20 points) and Jarno Trulli (15) were 10th. and 12th. in the Drivers World Championship.

But there are more to the 2006 season than these basic facts. If we look at reliability, Panasonic Toyota Racing is also sixth: Ralf (seven) and Jarno (five) posted 12 retirements between them during the season from 36 starts. This table also have Renault (four retirements) and Ferrari (five) at the top.

If we look at the drivers´ “race mileage” (total distance covered in the 18 2006 races), Fernando Alonso (5336) leads Michael Schumacher (5233) with Ralf ninth with 4543 kms and Jarno 12th. with 4319 kms.

If we look at the teams´ “race mileage”, Renault (10.391) and Ferrari (10.334) lead with Panasonic Toyota Racing in sixth place with 8862 kms.

Another interesting “stat” from 2006 concerns the drivers´ average grid position (the average starting position from all 18 races). On this, Fernando Alonso is on “pole position” with an average start position of 4,28 with Michael Schumacher second (5,44). If we only consider drivers who competed in all the 18 races, Ralf is in a strong eighth place (average: 9,94) and Jarno is tenth (average: 10,28).

So - when all is said and done: Was 2006 a successful year for Panasonic Toyota Racing? If you ask me, the answer is a big YES. Why? Because Panasonic Toyota Racing is still one of the newest teams in F1. Since its 2002 debut - 2006 was only the team´s fifth season, remember - Panasonic Toyota Racing has established themselves firmly in the sport´s top-six. And remember: All the teams in front of Panasonic Toyota Racing have been in the sport for twice as long - or much longer. To be competing with teams like BMW-Sauber (debut: 1993) and Honda (debut in its present guise: 1999) proves Panasonic Toyota Racing is doing a great job.

The 2007 Formula One season starts next week (well - unofficially at least!): On Tuesday November 28 the off-season test ban is lifted, and most teams will be busy at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona for three days. The following week sees another three day session December 6-8) in Jerez followed by another three days (December 12-14), also in Jerez. Panasonic Toyota Racing will take part in all these pre-Christmas sessions; giving Kamui Kobayashi and Kohei Hirate runs in the TF106B (which will also have regular drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli as well as test driver Olivier Panis behind the wheel).

Kamui and Kohei are both members of Toyota Young Drivers Program (TDP) which also includes new Williams-Toyota test driver Kazuki Nakajima. The program was established in 1990 as part of the Formula Toyota Racing School; a hands-on racing school Toyota had been operating for some time in Japan. In 2001 Toyota created the Toyota Drivers Academy to foster young drivers outside Japan and last year the two programs were integrated under the TDP banner.

One of the first drivers to enjoy Toyota´s support was Ryan Briscoe, who did a quite a bit of testing for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team in 2004; even taking part in Friday testing session before Grands Prix. Another of the early “Toyota Young Drivers”, France´s Franck Perera has also been testing for Panasonic Toyota Racing and a couple of weeks ago Kazuki Nakajima was announced as the official test driver for Williams (running Toyota engines from 2007 onwards). Kazuki made a strong impression in the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2006 and will combine his 2007 F1 testing duties for Williams with a season in the GP2 series.

Kohei Hirate and Kamui Kobayashi also took part in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2006 and while Kamui will stay in the series, Kohei progresses to the GP2 series. “I am extremely happy about my 2007 season: I have advanced to GP2, which is a step toward F1 and I will do my very best to come even closer to F1,” says Kohei, who will make his test debut with Panasonic Toyota Racing in Jerez on December 8. He is also scheduled to driver at the same circuit on December 12.

Kamui Kobayashi will stay with the ASM team in the F3 Euroseries for 2007 and hopes to win the title. “I get along well with the other team members and I believe that the team structure makes it possible for me to be series champion - and I am going to pursue that goal!,” he says. “And as a member of the Toyota family, I would like to take the opportunity that has been given to me to be an F1 test driver,” Kamui goes on. The plan for him is to make his debut in the Panasonic Toyota TF106B at the Circuit de Catalunya on November 29 before going on to Jerez for two days of F1 testing on December 6-7.

The fact that three TDP drivers are already testing F1 proves how serious Toyota is about finding and nursing new talents. It will be interesting to see how Kamui and Kohei fare in the upcoming tests - I am sure this is the Christmas present they wanted most of all!

As I write this, the second winter test at the Jerez circuit in Spain is in full swing. The first of the winter tests - at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona - finished last week, and the results and comments from Spain were very interesting.

For Panasonic Toyota Racing, the Circuit de Catalunya test finished on a high note as Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher produced the fastest lap times of the week - both Jarno and Ralf were some 3/10s faster than Ferrari drivers Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa, who were next up. BUT - Jarno and Ralf set their fastest lap times on the Friday, when everybody else had packed up go to Jerez. The Circuit de Catalunya is infamous for the changing conditions (wind direction, track temperature and so on), which have a great influence on the lap times. It is therefore impossible to compare lap times from different days, but there is no doubt that both Jarno and Ralf left Barcelona in a positive frame of mind; Ralf even talking confidently of scoring Panasonic Toyota Racing´s first Grand Prix win in 2007.

The first two winter tests saw a total of six drivers in action for Panasonic Toyota Racing. In addition to Ralf and Jarno, Kamui Kobayashi and Kohei Hirate from the Toyota Young Drivers Program took part in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya and Jerez. Long-time Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Olivier Panis ran at the Barcelona circuit (and will have his last test for the team in Jerez next week) and new tester Franck Montagny was in action in Jerez. Franck only joins the team full-time in January, but took the opportunity to become familiar with the team and the Panasonic Toyota before 2007 testing kicks off on January 30th. in Valencia. Yes - after next week´s Jerez test, there will be no official F1 testing for more than a month. But January will still see a lot of F1 action as several teams will launch their new cars - Panasonic Toyota Racing´s preseason event will take place in Cologne on January 12 followed by the McLaren (January 15) and BMW (January 16) launches in Valencia. Other teams are also likely to present their new cars in January, but dates and locations have not been announced yet.


The reason for the limited test program in January is the new generation of tyres. With Bridgestone supplying the entire field (and only making two different compounds available), the demand for tyre testing is greatly reduced.

Still, Panasonic Toyota Racing were busy collecting data from the new Bridgestone tyres in the first winter tests. With no “tyre war”, the 2007 tyres are quite different from what we were used to in the last few years.

“The new tyres seem to work well but we need to work on the set-up in order to make the most of them,” Jarno said after his first laps with the 2007 tyres.

Ralf says the new tyres have less grip than the 2006 tyres. “But they are good to drive on and they make the car a bit easier to handle. Lap times are a little bit slower and the car slides a bit more, which makes the driving a bit more fun,” he says.

This is the quiet time of the Formula 1 year: With Christmas and the New Year coming up, the coming two weeks will be the only real “off season” we have, and everybody is looking forward to relax with their family and friends.

The quiet time comes after a busy December. There have been three test sessions in Spain; one at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona and two in Jerez. Panasonic Toyota Racing took part in all three, and ss I reported in my last diary, lap times have been very encouraging for Panasonic Toyota Racing this winter.

The last Jerez test, which ended on December 14, also marked the end of Olivier Panis´ F1 career. The Frenchman, winner of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, has been a popular member of the Panasonic Toyota Racing team since 2003; initially racing for the team for two seasons and then testing in 2005 and 06. “Ollie” has always been helpful when it came to preparing these diaries, and I will miss him.

The rest of the Panasonic Toyota Racing team will also miss Olivier, and there was a small celebration in Jerez to say “Au Revoir” to the Frenchman. Toyota Motor Europe handed over a piece of the Jerez circuit´s asphalt to him - as a reminder of his many testing laps at the circuit. Jarno Trulli, who had partnered Panis in the Prost team back in 1997-98 and became a close friend, also had a gift for the Frenchman - one of his helmets! The mechanics all signed a rear wing end plate which was presented to Panis - this will probably be on display in his own little “museum”, which already include an entire Panasonic Toyota: At the 2005 French Grand Prix, Panasonic Toyota Racing presented Olivier Panis with a car as a “thank-you” for his great contribution to the team.

If the coming two weeks will be quiet, we will soon be gearing up for a busy month of January. Here in the office I am already preparing various previews of the new season for the magazines I work for, and the travelling kicks off on January 9, when I will fly to Italy. Ferrari always start the new season with a “skiing holiday” in Madonna di Campiglio, and I look forward to see Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa in the snow. Kimi Raikkonen should be at home in this environment (the McLaren-Mercedes mechanics used to call him the “Iceman”) but it will be interesting to see Massa on the slopes. After all, there is very little snow in Brazil!

At the end of the Ferrari ski week, Panasonic Toyota Racing will be the first team to launch their 2007 car. This takes place in Köln on January 12 and the following day it is off to Spain for the McLaren-Mercedes and BMW launches in Valencia.

The quiet time? It will soon be over...