04/04/2004

Grand Prix of Bahrain - Race Round-Up

Olivier Panis (Car 17 Chassis TF104/03)
Session Classification: 9th +1 lap (from race winner)
Grid: 8th
"It has been a positive weekend for everyone at Toyota. We opted for an
aggressive three-stop strategy which I think was the best for us today.
Although it is frustrating to finish ninth we have all worked hard to
perform as well as we could. I must say thanks to Michelin who provided us
with some invaluable support and competitive tyres this weekend. We have
shown another increase in our overall level of performance and we have to
keep putting in our best combined effort to improve on this even more in
Imola."

Cristiano da Matta (Car 16 Chassis TF104/02)
Session Classification: 10th+1 lap (from race winner)
Grid: 9th
"It was a difficult race and quite disappointing after our relatively strong
performances in free practice and qualifying this weekend. I suffered from a
lack of grip throughout most of the race which prevented me of making any
significant gains. Generally it was frustrating because I thought we were
capable of more than tenth place today. Now we have to continue to work
hard before the European season starts in Imola in three weeks."

Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal
"Obviously we are not satisfied with the final result in Bahrain today but
we have to admit that with the current performance of the car we were not
in a position to do any better. On the positive side the engineers
mechanics the pit stop crew and the drivers did an excellent job with no
mistakes during the entire weekend. I believe we got the most out of our
package in Bahrain with the correct choice of Michelin tyre and race
strategy. At the next race in Imola we will have a new aerodynamic package
and we are confident we will make a step ahead compared to our current
status."

T-car: TF104/04 (set-up for Olivier Panis)
Spare chassis: TF104/01