As always, thank you for your support over the weekend. We are in Germany for the German GP, the first race of the second half of the 2008 F1 World Championship season. Starting last year, the German GP now alternates between the Nürburgring and Hockenheimring, this year marking the first time in two years that the race is at Hockenheimring. The German GP represents a “home race” for both Panasonic Toyota Racing and team driver Timo Glock. Here is my report of the happenings from the German Grand Prix.

The German GP marked the first major updates since the Spanish GP last April. The new front wing has been under continued development since the French GP. Based on testing at Hockenheim the prior week, the new specification proved itself with a 1m15.122s lap during qualifying.

Introducing the most comprehensive update since the Spanish GP at our home grand prix

We tested a variety of new parts at the joint testing session held the week prior to the German GP. At the French GP, we introduced a new front wing, which we subsequently improved for the British GP. We have upgraded the wing once more for introduction in Germany. The barge board and turning vanes are a new spec, and while it may not be obvious, we also made some changes to the upper border fin attached toward the front of the side pontoons. These changes are designed to provide stable performance while maintaining downforce.

These modifications mark the first significant updates since the first race of European Round—April’s Spanish GP. While we didn’t exactly find the gains we were expecting at the Spanish GP, we had high expectations for improved performance coming into the German GP.

In addition to the front wing, the sides of the car also featured new aero parts. The Hockenheim circuit calls for a mid- to high-downforce setup. Accordingly, the team came prepared with settings that emphasized stability and balance at speed.

Times fail to come down, but good feedback for car setup

Friday morning’s practice started under wet conditions, but both of our cars demonstrated fairly good balance. The track dried out for the afternoon session, but despite our best efforts, we couldn’t improve the balance in the way we wanted. While one wouldn’t have been impressed looking solely at our best lap times, our basic setup was generally solid, and our times were more a reflection of our attempts at different modifications than anything else.

Early on in practice we tested out the high-grip medium tire compound. Through Sector 2, Timo had been recording his fastest lap of the weekend, but his car went off course immediately upon entering Sector 3. Jarno (Trulli) went out on the harder tire compound at the end of the session, recording his best time through Sector 1, but on-course factors kept him from improving throughout the rest of the lap. All-in-all, we weren’t displeased with our progress.

The only thing we were concerned with at that point in the weekend was how much downforce to put on the cars for qualifying, since the weather reports indicated a high chance of rain on Saturday with dry conditions on Sunday.

Jarno turned in a splendid performance, answering high expectations at the team’s “second home” grand prix, and capturing a season-high P4 on the starting grid. Jarno held off rival drivers during the race, but was hampered due to lack of car balance, missing out on championship points for only the first time in four consecutive races.

The new front wing is an evolutionary step for the TF108; Jarno- P4 qualifying performance the best of the season

During Q1 (first qualifying period) the harder of the two types of hard tires prepared for this race didn’t offer much in the way of grip. Once we switched over to the medium tires (the softer of the two compounds), grip dramatically increased, and both Jarno and Timo cleared Q1 clocking quick times within 1/1000th of a second of each other. With a first attack lap during Q2 of 1m15.122s, both the team and Jarno himself felt that our work had paid off, boosting everyone’s confidence. Unfortunately, during the last stages of Q2, both drivers had their attack laps affected by the wind in Sector 2, keeping Jarno from improving on his time, and preventing Timo from turning in a better lap, missing out on advancing to Q3 by .02 seconds. While we might have been willing to accept those results if we had been able to perform at our best on all fronts, missing out on Q3 by such a small margin without really showing our true performance was very frustrating for us all.

Even so, Jarno was able to drive a superb attack lap during Q3. We were watching the monitors the whole time, so we weren’t tremendously shocked the moment he came in at P4. But after a debut in the French GP, subsequent modifications, wind tunnel experiments and positive feedback from our drivers, our new front wing performed splendidly, and we could not have been happier on that front. For our results during qualifying, we owe thanks not only to our driver and race team who worked so hard on the car setup, but also to the efforts of the developers working in the factory. I think we were able to make a good showing in qualifying at our “second home” grand prix. But qualifying isn’t the end of the story. We all wanted to work hard to ensure a podium finish on Sunday.

Timo suffered a major crash due to a rear suspension failure. While the car experienced significant damage, both fans and team alike were relieved to know that Timo was not injured. Look for Timo to rebound and drive a strong race in the next GP.

That Timo came away unhurt was the silver lining to our cloudy day

The most important thing for the weekend was that Timo came away uninjured from the crash. While we still haven’t identified the cause of the accident, from what we could see on the monitor it appeared that there was some kind of trouble with Timo’s right rear suspension. We will be looking closely into the issue, doing everything possible to make sure this type of accident doesn’t happen again.

As for the race, both drivers got off to a decent start. After protecting his position at P4 off the line, Jarno continued to battle Fernando Alonso (Renault) for position. Unfortunately, Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) took advantage, jumping up to P4. While Jarno was able to defend P5, the balance of the car suffered after the first pit stop, preventing Jarno from keeping pace. Timo, on the other hand, stayed out on the course until lap 29, and his car appeared to be handling better than Jarno’s. As the race developed, we thought Timo might be able to take advantage after the second pit stop, and move up into contention for championship points. This was yet another reason why Timo’s accident was so frustrating for everyone.

While the results of our “second home” grand prix did not live up to expectations, our one-lap speed during qualifying proved that we are headed in the right direction. But this was also a grand prix in which we reconfirmed that we still have issues yet to resolve if we are going to battle head on with the top teams. We are united in our desire to resolve these issues as quickly as possible in order to catch up. Thank you, and please continue to cheer us on.