Toyota TF104 gets redesigned.

[Veyron]

Toyota Redesign Flawed TF104 - 11 March 2004
Cologne-based F1 stragglers Toyota are busy redesigning the unhurried TF104 car.

Millionaire-salaried technical director Mike Gascoyne did not design the twice-lapped racer but said a 'total repackaging' would surface by Imola (April 25).

'[And] we've got several new parts for Malaysia,' he told Motorsport News.

Gascoyne said one of the main defects of the car, built by a team with arguably the biggest budget in F1, is that the weight is not distributed low enough.

He told the British weekly: 'That's what we'll be addressing.'

VERY BIG GAP

An even bigger car-update is scheduled for Silverstone, according to sources.

Driving-veteran Olivier Panis put a brave-face on his double-lapping at Albert Park last Sunday and insisted the Aussie circuit is not a 'typical' race-track.

'Things conspired against us [last] weekend,' said the Frenchman.

'But the gap to the top teams is very big. Still, the season is long.'

As well as weight-distribution, Mike Gascoyne criticised TF104's poorly conceived aerodynamics but said programmes are already in place to rectify them.

'Everyone is working flat-out to get us where we should be,' he noted.

'And that's at the front of the grid.'

* Out-of-work former Jaguar ace Justin Wilson is in the final throes of negotiation for a drive in the rejuvenated Champ Car series of America.

'I am optimistic that I will be able to confirm that Justin will have a competitive drive within a couple of weeks,' said his manager Jonathan Palmer.

[djmr2]

weeeee toyota better get their act together or i'm changing camps and cheering for BAR!

[Layla's Keeper]

If anyone can get the Toyota up there, it's Gascoyne. The man is the Harvey Postlethwaite of the modern regs.

Only Rory Byrne is a superior aerodynamicist, and he's more about evolutionary design than Gascoyne.