• The 2005 Season comes to a close with Ralf on the podium
Hello, everyone. Thank you for your support over the weekend. Takahashi here with the final report of the 2005 19-race F1 series from the Chinese Grand Prix.

The F1 series is a long season, with the first race back on March 6 at the Australian GP. But looking back, it seems like the year passed almost too quickly. We feel fortunate that we were able to reach the goals we set at the beginning of the year, one of which was to reach the podium.

We came to Shanghai determined to leave a good result to cap off a 2005 season, and have the team come away feeling that we had a strong, fulfilling year. The weekend has plenty of frustrations, but in the end I am happy to be able to report in my final entry of the year that Ralf captured 3rd place and a position on the podium in the Chinese Grand Prix. Let’s take a look back on the last three days of racing…

• Using data from Suzuka to full effect in Shanghai

The Panasonic Toyota Racing cars weren't upgraded for the Chinese Grand Prix. Trulli's car used the same engine from his accident-shortened race in Japan.

Even though we won the pole position at Suzuka, the race didn’t develop as we had planned. In another sense, though, it was very satisfying race. Even though we had our share of regrets, we went with an aggressive, win-or-lose strategy, and gave it our all. The new TF105B performed splendidly, and we were able to collect a great amount of important data. So, even though we were disappointed with the results at Suzuka, we were able to take a lot of value out of the race.

We brought our cars to Shanghai directly from Suzuka, without any upgrades at all. Both cars are using the same engine that raced in Japan. Since Jarno retired from the race due to an unfortunate accident, we actually had the option of changing out his engine, but since he was forced out of the race so early, the had less than 300km on it. Given that, we decided to go ahead and use the engine as it was.

As with the circuits in Brazil and Indianapolis, the Shanghai Circuit consists of many corners in the first half, and long straightaways in the second half. The circuit is very tricky with respect to setup, and forces teams to make a decision between high and low downforce. In addition, the track surface condition changes considerably throughout the weekend, which is another difficult-to-place piece in the setup puzzle. On top of everything, the track surface is extremely smooth and finely grained, which means drivers must be extra cautious not to slip when conditions get dusty.

At Shanghai, the burden on the engine is not a significant factor, since drivers are on full throttle only 60% of the time. On the other hand, the course is murder on brakes. And from a strategic point of view, there is a large time-loss element in the pits combined with a higher fuel effect than the average circuit. I think we’ll see teams looking for a one- or two-pit strategy on Sunday.

• Friday The TF105B struggles on a slippery track
As we predicted, the track surface was extremely slippery when we first went out on Friday morning. Several cars went off the tarmac, spreading dirt on the course and causing several extremely dirty sections. Despite the conditions, our plan was to build up a good number of laps right from the start. Part of this decision was the fact that was Jarno’s first time ever here in Shanghai. He still had plenty of life left in his engine for our plans, but he reported an overly heavy steering wheel. Ultimately, the time it took for us to correct the problem ate into most of his practice time on Friday morning.

The weather report called for a good chance of rain during the last part of the afternoon session, so we put all three cars on the track from the start. We altered our planned program, changing to new tires during the middle part of the session to run an attack lap, and then conduct a long run. The course still hadn’t improved much during our attack lap, resulting in a less-than-spectacular time, but Ricardo’s car was in great shape—well balanced without any sign of graining on the tires.

Both of the race cars suffered from a strong understeer tendency, and we struggled with finding an acceptable level of balance. While this was going on, Jarno’s car ran over some debris on the track, puncturing his tire. If that wasn’t enough, the shaft that transfers power from the engine broke on Jarno’s car, leaving it dead the track. With qualifying approaching, our plan was to use the data from Ricardo’s car to help us setup the race cars.

With only one race to its credit, the 105B may not have been perfectly ready for Shanghai, where track conditions vary significantly from Suzuka. I think we saw evidence of this in the different performance characteristics between Ricardo’s 105 and the two 105B cars.

• Saturday A setup designed for the second half of the race makes for a tough qualifying lap

	The strategy to run long in the second stint paid off. This time around, the safety car was Ralf's ally.

We didn’t get the results we expected on Saturday. Jarno was scheduled as the third driver of the day to take an attack lap, and nothing much could be done to compensate for the dirty state of the track surface. The track had improved considerably by the time it was Ralf’s turn, but his car was still suffering from the understeer we saw on Friday, causing quite a bit of lost time. By our calculations, we should have been .3 seconds quicker than we were which would have put us in around 7th or 8th for the start of the race.

Since both TF105B cars were suffering understeer on Friday, we took most of the morning’s free practice to work on the problem. We knew that we could eliminate the understeer to turn in a quick single-lap time, but we also knew that doing so would generate oversteer that would wear the tires down during the race. The tires showed extremely different characteristics when they were fresh vs. when they had 30 laps on them. There was no way around the fact that we were going to have to make some compromises in our setup. Finally, we decided to put together a setup that would put us in the best balance during the second half of the actual race, but in so doing, we ran into even greater understeer during qualifying than we expected. The track surface temperature was about 10°C cooler than prediction, and that might have been a compounding factor. Our aerodynamics featured quite a bit of downforce for cornering, which may have proved to be too harsh for the early stages of the race. However, we figured that the tires would still be in good shape during the last half of the race, and that we would be able to make up ground from that point on.

Judging from the qualifying results, it seems that the TF105 may have been better suited to the Shanghai Circuit than the 105B. However, thinking long-term about next year and beyond, the team made the decision that it would be better to race the 105B, collecting as much data as we could for next year. And though we knew the decision could come back to haunt us, we were willing to make the trade-off, sacrificing an easier go of it in Shanghai, but increasing our chances to win next year.

• Sunday Reaching the podium at the final race, a perfect 2005 season

Ralf, celebrating his 3rd place podium finish with the team. The team finished 4th in the Constructors’ championship. In the Drivers’ championship, Ralf finished 6th and Trulli finished 7th for the year.

Although I admit that we caught a few lucky breaks during the race, I cannot tell you how proud and happy I am that the TF105B reached the podium on Sunday. Looking back over the entire race, it was a very rough time. For us, we encountered both good and bad luck.

When the first safety car came out, most of the teams brought their cars in to refuel, basically resetting their strategy. The good thing for us was that this allowed Ralf to come in and add a lot of fuel. Our original strategy called for two stops, running long over the second stint, and the situation played right into our hands. When the second safety car came out, we struggled as to whether we should bring Ralf in, ultimately leaving him out on the course. Our intention was to get Ralf in front of Alonso, who had pitted, but Ralf was trapped behind a slow-moving Fisichella, and in this our plans were foiled. We had hoped to get out front and run away from the chasers. But as a result, Fisichella received a penalty, and Ralf was able to gain 3rd. And I would have to honestly say that we were fortunate that Barrichello was held up in traffic behind us. So we were both lucky and unlucky, but considering a 3rd place finish, I have to say that I am very satisfied. Toward the end, Fisichella was chasing us, but our tires were solid, letting us increase our pace, and our settings (designed to provide good balance during the last race stage) finally proved out.

In contrast, Jarno had a difficult race. Jarno pitted in two laps before the safety car came out, so he didn’t gain the benefit that Ralf did. As a result, Jarno was held back in traffic, preventing him from increasing his pace during the middle stage of the race. Finally, Jarno had to pit, citing a vibration in his left front tire. It was definitely a tough race for Jarno, compounded by the fact that we still couldn’t get the TF105B to a setup that matched Jarno’s driving style. But all-in-all, we were able to have both cars finish the entire race, helping us collect some very valuable data. This data will be of great use to us as we continue to develop our car for next year. Not only did we get a great result, but also the Chinese Grand Prix served as a race that has given us positive momentum for the coming season. I could not be happier. We went through a lot of ups and downs this season, but I am thrilled that we could end on such a high note. We will be developing an even better chassis and engine for next year—a car that I expect to lead us to victory!

As always, thank you for visiting the official Panasonic Toyota Racing website. And thank you all for your support during the season. I you continue to support us, and are as excited as we are for a fantastic 2006 F1 championship series.