Tomorrow (Friday) will see Panasonic Toyota Racing´s preseason event take place in Köln (Germany). I am sure you can read more about this at other pages of the website, so I will instead tell you why January is turning into one of my busiest months ever,

Panasonic Toyota Racing´s preseason event will kick off what I call the "launch time" - the two or three weeks when all the F1 teams will launch their new cars at spectacular events all over Europe. And on top of the F1 launches, there are also other events: For this and next week, I had to turn down three invitations because of F1 launches:
Without my busy F1 schedule, I could have gone to Paris (for the presentation of the new Peugeot Le Mans car), to Mauritania (with VW for the Dakar rally) and Monte Carlo (with Citroen for the opening round of the World Rally Championship)!

BUT - even though I cover other championships and always enjoy my (rare!) visits to these races - F1 is my main business, and the launch season really kicked off in style this year. I spent the days leading up to the Panasonic Toyota Racing preseason event in the Italian ski resort Madonna di Campiglio, where Ferrari introduced their team and 2007 plans for the F1 media. If I had stayed in Italy, I could have gone to Maranello on Sunday, where Ferrari had a presentation of their new car (but no photography allowed!).

Instead I flew back to Denmark - for just one day: McLaren-Mercedes team have their 2007 presentation in Valencia on Monday. Initially, this was an afternoon/night affair, but last week it was decided to have a photo-shoot of the new car on Monday morning, so I had to change my flights - instead of an early morning flight, I had to leave Sunday afternoon. Immediately after the McLaren-Mercedes party, which is likely to run into the early hours of Tuesday, BMW have their 2007 launch; also in Valencia. This will end in the early afternoon, and then it is back to Valencia for a flight to Barcelona, on to Frankfurt and finally Copenhagen!

After a few days in the office (unfortunately I just don´t look at the new cars - I also have to write about them!) I will go to Holland for the Renault launch on January 24 in Amsterdam. This is followed by the Red Bull launch the following day in Barcelona, but I think I will miss this: I will also go to a Panasonic Toyota Racing test (to bring you the latest updates in my preseason diaries). And then there is the Williams-Toyota launch at the team H.Q. in Grove on February 2.

So now you know why January is not the off-season - it is the LAUNCH season!

The 2007 launch season is in full swing. In the last couple of weeks, Panasonic Toyota Racing, McLaren, BMW, Renault and Honda have all introduced their 2007 cars and teams at events all over Europe.

As has become usual in recent years, Panasonic Toyota Racing beat the opposition and became the first team to launch their new car. The event took place in an exhibition centre in downtown Cologne close to the team´s H.Q. and I am sure you have read about the Panasonic Toyota Launch in other pars of this website.

The McLaren launch in Valencia was a spectacular affair. Celebrating the new partnership with title sponsor Vodafone, the event kicked off with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton driving a handful of laps at a “”circuit” made up of closed streets in downtown Valencia. The famous Cirque du Soleil then offered us a special 45 minute show and then it was time for dinner. During this, all the app. 800 guests were given a McLaren-Mercedes telephone; all with a prepaid number. New McLaren driver Fernando Alonso was then asked to pick one of the numbers at random, calling the number - and telling one very lucky guest that he had just won himself one of the brand new Mercedes C Class models!

Everybody in the room were highly excited - would their phone ring and make them a Mercedes owner? Now - earlier in the day, Fernando and the other drivers had also been given the new telephone, and the World Champion had secretly noticed the number of third driver Pedro de la Rosa. Instead of calling the number he had picked at random, Fernando called de la Rosa. The surprised third driver came on stage - only to hear Fernando announce that it was “wrong number” - and a little (cruel!) joke! Another lucky guest then got a call from Fernando, and to finish off the evening, violinist Vanessa Mae performed a small concert.

The BMW launch the following day was less spectacular with the car unveiled in an exhibition centre in downtown Valencia before we all went by bus to the circuit outside town. While we had lunch, the car was readied in the pits, and in the afternoon we could see the new BMW during its shakedown test.

The Renault launch on Wednesday took place in Amsterdam - in an old shipyard called “The Factory”. Despite the unusual location, it was a fairly conventional affair with the key members of the team interviewed on stage followed by a question-and-answer session with the team´s technical directors.

Honda´s launch took place at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona, which will also host the Red Bull launch on Friday.

And next week it is off to Williams´ H.Q. in Grove for the launch of their first Toyota powered car on Friday followed by Spyker on Silverstone on Monday February 5.

I like the “launch season” - but after the shows, speeches and dry ice of the past weeks, I also look forward to some racing!

Testing in preparation for the 2007 Formula 1 season is in full swing and this week saw Panasonic Toyota Racing and seven other teams in action in Jerez.

I had not been in Jerez since the infamous 1997 European Grand Prix, which saw Michael Schumacher trying to win the World Championship by running into Jacques Villeneuve (but there was some justice: It was Michael who retired and Jacques who won the title in the end!). It was nice to come back to Jerez: The circuit has been upgraded in several areas, the sun was shining, the temperature was 18 degrees C (while we had a snow storm in Denmark). AND - I was invited to dinner with new Panasonic Toyota Racing third driver Franck Montagny at the Huelva restaurant.

Franck was Renault´s test driver from 2003 to 05 and last year made his Grand Prix debut with the Super Aguri team; taking part in seven races. “But for me it is much better to be third driver with a big team
like Panasonic Toyota Racing than racing for a small team like Super Aguri. One season of racing with a team from the back of the grid is OK, but if you do it for another year, it will probably finish your career. With a big team like Panasonic Toyota Racing I really feel my career can progress,” Franck said.

I then asked Franck to compare the Renault team (double World Champions, remember!) with Panasonic Toyota Racing. “You have to remember that Renault has been in F1 for a lot longer than Panasonic Toyota Racing. And there is another very important difference: At Renault, they make the cars and run the team from Enstone in England while the engines come from France. At Panasonic Toyota Racing, we have everything under one roof and I think that is an advantage.”

Talking of advantages: This year, all teams will run on Bridgestone tyres, and McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, Honda, BMW, Red Bull and Toro Rosso (which ran Michelin in 2006) will change to the Japanese tyres. Panasonic Toyota Racing switched to Bridgestone after the 2005 season - will this be an advantage? “I hope so!” Franck says. “All teams will have the same tyres this year, but we already know the Bridgestone people and this could be an advantage. You have SO many things to play with when you set up the car, and if you know how to describe the behaviour of the car - and the tyre technician knows exactly what you mean - it is a great help. Communication is very important, and because Panasonic Toyota Racing was with Bridgestone last year, I hope we can work more efficiently,” Franck explained.

Dinner was almost over by now and it was time for coffee. One last question: How much testing will Franck get in the Panasonic Toyota this year? “I will take part in all the winter tests, but as you know, testing during the season will be restricted this year. Still, I will probably do most of these tests as well and then I will be present at all the Grands Prix. I am not sure I will get to run on the Fridays, but I will be on “stand-by” in case they need me. It will be a great season!”

The countdown is on: Practice for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will start in less then three weeks! Most of the teams have already left Europe and are busy testing in Bahrain, but with most of my preview stories already done, I have decided to stay at home. Not a clever choice: While the rest of the “circus” enjoy the sunshine and 25 degrees C in Bahrain, I am left in a crazy snow storm in Denmark!

Panasonic Toyota Racing have been testing in Barcelona, Valencia and Jerez before going to Bahrain but it is difficult to make predictions. One day you will see the Ferraris fastest, one day the McLarens - and one day even a Red Bull topped the time sheets.

“All teams have been running different programs so you shouldn´t really compare the lap times,” Jarno Trulli told me over dinner in Jerez recently. “Only the lap times from the two sessions in Bahrain will give us an indication of who will be strong in Melbourne. But only an indication...”

For Jarno, the Jerez was something of a family outing. His wife Barbara was there - and their two small children. Little Enzo (“he is named after my father - NOT Mr. Ferrari!”) was happy running around in the team´s hospitality area, and Barbara had a hard time catching up with him!

Jarno was clearly happy to have his family around him but the Jerez test was also hard work. “2007 is important because we have to prove that we have recovered from last year, which was not...what we had expected.” Jarno told me. “I am confident we will have a strong season, but the competition in F1 is incredibly strong. You must also remember that Panasonic Toyota Racing is a young team. I see it like this: There is only four established teams that really know how to work in F1 - and they are Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and Williams. All the rest of the teams - including ourselves - are still learning.”

So - would Jarno say 2007 is a crucial season for Panasonic Toyota Racing? He smiled - and then: “In F1, EVERY season is crucial. We will try very hard to win our first race, but much more important is the fact that Toyota has a long-term commitment to F1.”

It was interesting to hear Jarno mention Williams as one of the four “established” teams. Williams had a disappointing 2006 season with the Cosworth engines, but they hope for much better things this year, when they will be powered by the same V8 engines as Panasonic Toyota Racing.

The two teams work closely together - and not only when it comes to engines: The Panasonic Toyota TF107 features a new “seamless” gearbox, which has been developed in co-operation with Williams. “It seems to work very well,” Jarno said. “It keeps the engine torque while we change up and it also makes the changes shorter. It will be a quite significant step - at some tracks it could give us maybe 0,5 second per lap. But the other teams have similar projects of course...”

It is the same every year: The launches in January and the test sessions in February are OK but they can´t satisfy my F1 hunger: At the end of February I am desperate for some real racing! This year, with the first race two weeks later than usual, the wait has been longer than ever, but now it is finally over. On Monday I will start the 24 hour trip to Melbourne and on Wednesday I will collect my permanent media pass and then go to the paddock. Here I will see old friends and new cars and a couple of days later the first engines will be fired up for the opening practice session of the 2007 Formula 1 season. Add Australian sunshine (after a long, grey winter in Denmark!) and the world will be OK again!

(Actually I hope there WILL be sunshine in Melbourne: We have had some wet days in Albert Park in the last few years and I guess the move from early March to mid-March increases the risk of rain).

Albert Park is one of my favourite circuits on the F1 calendar. There is always a great atmosphere and the circuit itself is an interesting combination of long straights and many types of corners. Because of the stop-go nature of the circuit, brakes are important in Albert Park and it is vital to get the brake stability spot on. Another traditional feature of Albert Park is that the circuit is always very dirty when practice begins on Friday: Spectacular spins are almost guaranteed in the Friday morning session!

The 2007 season promises to be the most “”open” in many, many years. “The King” (not Elvis - Michael Schumacher!) has retired and his two “crown princes” Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso have both changed teams during the winter. And before you ask: No - I don´t have a favourite for the 2007 title. I think it will be between Raikkonen and Felipe Massa (both Ferrari) and Alonso (McLaren-Mercedes). Of these three, only Massa is in the same team as last year, and I am a great believer in continuity in F1. So even though I won´t call him my favourite for the title, I still think Massa will be very strong!

Continuity is also a strong card in Panasonic Toyota Racing´s hand. ALL other teams have changed either drivers, engines or tyres since last year, but these three key factors are unchanged in the Panasonic Toyota Racing camp. Winter testing has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for the team, but just before the cars left for Melbourne, both Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli were in action in a private session in Jerez. ”We had a very successful final preparation day for Melbourne,” Chief Engineer Race and Test Dieter Gass says.

And in an interview with German tabloid Bild, Ralf was even more optimistic: “Panasonic Toyota Racing is the team for the future,” he said. “The company and everyone working for it has one goal: To lead Toyota to the top. The Formula One title is only a question of time.”


The title will not come this year but some “podiums” and maybe that first Grand Prix are on the cards. More news from Melbourne on Friday!