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F1: Toyota Encouraged Despite Retirements, Says Vasselon
Written by: Adam Cooper
RACER Magazine   http://www.racer.com/speedtv
05/15/2007 - 07:00 PM
Cologne, Germany
 
Toyota pit crew wait for one of their cars to come in for a pit stop during the Spanish Grand Prix. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images) » More Photos

Toyota chassis boss Pascal Vasselon says the team has taken some positives out the Spanish GP weekend, despite a frustrating double retirement.

Jarno Trulli qualified sixth but stalled on the grid due to a fuel pressure problem that eventually put him out for good. Meanwhile Ralf Schumacher had a terrible qualifying session followed by a first lap collision that again led to his retirement.

Vasselon says that the good news was that the race proved that Trulli's qualifying position was legitimately earned. He was fueled for 21 laps, the same as Robert Kubica, who was just 0.071sec faster. Trulli also comfortably beat the Renaults, which were fuelled for 19 laps (Kovalainen) and Fisichella (21 laps) respectively.

"The race was very disappointing, but not discouraging," Vasselon told SpeedTV.com. "Exactly the opposite. We saw with some surprise how light the cars around Jarno were. So his time in qualifying was really good. Lap 21 was really in the ballpark of the other cars, and It was similar to Kubica and the Renaults."

Trulli's sixth place was wasted when he stalled at the start and created an abort. As a consequence he had to start from the pit lane, although he was soon forced to retire.

"We knew immediately in fact that Jarno had a fuel pressure problem, which developed first at low rpms, which is why he stalled on the grid. Then we could restart the car, going to higher rpm, but then the problem just developed. It
was just a fuel line that was damaged rubbing against another line, and the pressure leak was just developing, so he was unable to continue – there was no point."

Schumacher's race was spoiled when he got caught in a sandwich between Takuma Sato and Alex Wurz on the first lap, and had to make an immediate pit stop to check for damage.

"For Ralf, his retirement was an indirect consequence of the crash on the first lap. When the mechanics checked the car, they checked the rear wing, which was damaged, but still holding quite well, and they checked the nose, but they could not refit it completely tightened, so it took several laps to get loose again. It was then touching the tire. Ralf had a vibration and he decided to pit.

"Initially, when he came in he told us he had a wheelbearing failure, but in fact what he was seeing was the tire rubbing against the wing. Usually when you have that, you've lost a wheel bearing. He was catching Davidson, but after this extra stop there was no point in carrying on. But considering the damage on the rear wing was costing him top speed, his race pace was quite good."



Catch up on the latest in IndyCar racing each month in RACER. Jeff Olson gets inside the new and improved Andretti Green Racing team in our June issue, on sale now.