Thank you all for your support over the weekend. Takahashi here with a report on the British GP.

After the qualifying session, both of our cars were in the top 10, with Jarno in 4th position and Ralf in 8th. We had high expectations for another podium finish and a double-points result for the race today. During the first half of the race, we encountered an inexplicable lack of grip, and not being able to push the pace, we couldn’t defend or improve our position. Ralf was able to hold things together for an in-the-points finish at 8th, but Jarno, who had aspirations of a top-three result, finished 9th and out of the points. To be honest, I am very disappointed at these unexpected results. Once again, we couldn’t match the speed demonstrated by McLaren and Renault, but you can be sure that we’ll be pouring over the data from this weekend, working on a way to recover our competitiveness.

• Hampered by an inexplicable lack of grip
As expected, Sunday morning saw clear weather and rising temperatures. The weather was so beautiful, I wondered briefly if we were still in England! By one o’clock p.m., the scheduled race start, ambient temperature had climbed to 27°C, and the track temperature was near 45°C—more than 20°C higher than Saturday. But the weather and track conditions were nothing we hadn’t already accounted for in our strategy.

For the start, both Jarno and Ralf were positioned on the inside lane of the grid, the so-called “dirty side,” where the track was extremely dirty. We were worried about that, and as we feared, our acceleration capability was compromised by the conditions on the inside. By the first corner, both cars had dropped position. Out of corner 1, Jarno had fallen to 6th place, and Ralf to 9th. Jarno was actually quick off the start, with timing suggesting that he might overtake one or more cars in front, but his tires spun and he ended up losing two positions. With Takuma Sato stalling before the start, the safety car came out on the first lap, but Sato’s car was pushed into the pits quickly, and the safety car was off the track as the race resumed on lap 2.

We decided to take a slightly different approach to race strategy for each car. The main reason for this was that Jarno had gone with the softer tire compound, while Ralf chose the harder compound. Each type of tire had demonstrated comparative strengths and weaknesses, so each driver selected their preference, which dictated slightly differing strategies. With the softer tire, our strategy for Jarno was to have him jump out quickly on the first stint, overtaking as many cars as possible. Unfortunately, Jarno wasn’t able to increase his pace over the first stint. With the top group lapping at between 1m22s and 1m21s, Jarno was almost 3 seconds slower, at between 1m25s and 1m24s. Right from the beginning, the distance between Jarno and the top group grew farther and farther apart. Following on Jarno’s tail were Michael Schumacher, Raikkonen and Ralf. Jarno reported that his car’s balance was fine, but he had almost no grip.

Both drivers went with a two-pit strategy. The plan called for Jarno to come in first, with Ralf coming in two or three laps later. Jarno came in for his first pit on lap 20, and Ralf came in on 21. We checked Jarno’s tire pressure, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We took down Ralf’s pressure a bit, but we weren’t able to solve the apparent issues on the course.

Even after adjusting tire air pressure in the pits, Ralf couldn't find grip on the course. He finished 8th, the exact position from which he started the race.

With such a dramatic increase in track temperature, you would expect a loss of grip; however, the times turned in by the other cars didn’t indicate they were having any trouble. Another peculiar difference between this week and last was the fact that our car balance wasn’t affected. In France, we experienced a significant change in balance as tire grip was lost. Here, there weren’t any balance problems, even in the high-speed corners where we lost grip and slipped. For a still-unknown reason, the negative symptoms disappeared during the second stint, and our times improved. We even ran in the 1m21s range over the last part of the race.

Not able to increase pace during the first half of the race, Jarno was passed by Ralf at the second pit stop, finishing 9th and out of the points. Ralf started and finished 8th, so we neither gained nor lost in his case.

• A new spec engine for Hockenheim
As of this point, we don’t know what caused our poor performance today. We won’t be able to say anything until we get the cars back to the factory, check the tires and chassis, and then corroborate with the data. We can’t really blame our performance this week and last on sudden weather changes, since we correctly anticipated and calculated for the weather and track conditions.

The next GP is at our home circuit in Hockenheim, so I truly hope we can turn in a strong performance and forget these past two races. We have prepared a new spec engine for Hockenheim. Truth be told, we didn’t make any changes to Jarno’s engine here at Silverstone. In other words, he used the same engine for three race weekends, including Indianapolis. Now, both his car and Ralf’s will be on the same engine cycle, with both cars getting the new spec engine for the next race. The new engine cycle will be Hockenheim and Hungary, and then Turkey and Monza, which means we’ll be able to use a new engine in Spa, after racing on the engine-intensive circuit in Monza. We intend to add some new aero parts for Hockenheim. We’ll decide what the exact changes will be after we get the results from the next round of testing at Jerez. We didn’t introduce any updates at Silverstone, but we will be increasing the pace of development for the second half of the championship series.

At Jerez we will also be conducting our first tests of the V8 engine to be used next year. While we are performing development for the second half of this season, we have also started in on development for next year. It’s a lot of work to accomplish, but we will be working hard to make a good show for the second half of the 2005 season. You can look forward to some new and exciting developments from Panasonic Toyota Racing.

Thank you again for visiting the official Panasonic Toyota Racing website. We have appreciated your support to date, and ask for your continued support throughout the rest of the season. I’ll see you here next with a Keizo Takahashi report from Hockenheim. Until then…