Toyota TF107 launched!

Toyota today unveiled its new TF107 challenger at the Expo XXI conference centre in Cologne, Germany.

Toyota is the only one of the 11 F1 teams to go into the new season with the same engine, the same tyre partner, and the same two race drivers. That unique degree of continuity will enable the team to hit the ground running and build on the experience gained over recent seasons.

Toyota has ambitious goals in Formula 1 and is aiming for success in 2007. “Our fundamental challenge this year is to get the first victory,” says Chairman and Team Principal Tsutomu Tomita.

“We announced that a year ago, but we failed to succeed in 2006. And therefore we want to repeat that challenge in 2007. I know all the other teams are working very hard, particularly the top three. We have five years experience in F1, but still we are young in comparison with the top teams, therefore we have to be modest about it. But we would like to challenge them.

“I’m very, very positive about this, and I personally think we should attack from round one. Therefore it’s very important to conduct some productive testing during the winter to fully understand the car and the tyres.”

The team has been strengthened in its quest for success by the arrival of George Tadashi Yamashina, who took over as Vice Chairman of Toyota Motorsport in December.
Yamashina will compliment the roles of Tomita and President John Howett, forming a management trio to lead Panasonic Toyota Racing to success.

“Tomita-san, John and myself are like three arrows in the Japanese saying – one arrow breaks easily, two is harder to break and with three arrows you cannot break them,” he says. “Of course I am excited by the task. Whenever I get an assignment, no matter how hard the challenge is, I am happy. That is my attitude.

“The most important target to aim for this season is the first victory for Toyota in Formula 1,” he said. “We want to be on the top step of the podium. We have improved in all areas, aerodynamics, suspension and gear change.”

Last year the team did not meet its high expectations it had after success in 2005 but there is great confidence that the TF107 will see Toyota competing at the front again.

“Our ambition has always been to win – that to me is why we are here and why we are racing,” agrees Howett. “I think we built a fairly good platform in 2005, and last year we didn’t move forward sufficiently from that platform. I think in terms of speed we had the third quickest package on the grid.

“Looking at race pace and qualifying pace, we were closing the gap on Renault towards the end of the season, but Ferrari was still in front. Although the results didn’t show it, I think we are now capable of running with the top teams in terms of speed.”

The team had a frustrating 2006 season but, in the spirit of kaizen , or continuous improvement, the new car benefits from all the knowledge and experience gained. With the right people in place and the will to win, the TF107 is the product of the team’s potential.

“We have addressed reliability this year,” Howett confirms. “And we have resolved issues like the launch system, which we fixed at the end of last season, and which cost us dearly. We’re improving the car, flat out, all the time. So I think we have the potential to win this year, and I’m disappointed that we didn’t deliver it in 2006.”

While there is continuity in other areas, the TF107 is a completely new car, with virtually no parts carried over from the TF106 and TF106B that preceded it.

“It’s pretty extensively changed in terms of basic lay-out,” says Howett. “When we went from the V10 to V8 the back of the engine effectively stayed in the same place, and the chassis and fuel tank filled the space where the front two cylinders of the V10 were. Now we’ve moved to engine forward, and yet worked really hard to still have a big tank. The gearbox is longer, and we will run a seamless shift for the first time.

Aerodynamics is the big focus, and a lot of the chassis layout has been designed to give better aero opportunity. The whole monocoque concept has been modified in terms of height and how it sits. Before it was quite a low car, now it’s higher. We have improved the suspension, and we have some interesting developments in the pipeline that we hope will give us performance.”

In 2006 Toyota made the switch to Bridgestone tyres, giving it a head start in cooperating when the Japanese company becomes the sole supplier this year.

The experience gained in adapting to new tyres will benefit the team and help it get the maximum out of the tyres available.

“We switched to Bridgestone tyres one year ago,” says Tomita. “In the beginning it we had some problems. I would compare it to the weather. In the winter testing and at the beginning of the season it was cloudy but in the middle of the year the clouds began to disappear and towards the end it was perfectly sunny!

“It was down and up through the year, but it was a very good learning year in 2006. So if I talk about 2007, and going to single tyre supplier, we have learned a lot about tyre treatment, particularly about temperature, suspension geometry and downforce.”

TF107 Technical Specifications
Monocoque construction - Moulded carbon fibre and honeycomb construction
Fuel tank - ATL safety cell
Front suspension - Carbon fibre double wishbone arrangement, with carbon fibre trackrod and pushrod.
Rear suspension - Carbon fibre double wishbone arrangement, with carbon fibre toe link and pushrod.
Dampers - Penske
Wheels - BBS forged magnesium
Tyres - Bridgestone Potenza
Brake callipers - Brembo
Brake master cylinders - Brembo
Braking material - Hitco (carbon/carbon)
Steering - Toyota power-assisted steering
Steering wheel - Toyota carbon fibre wheel with Toyota / Magneti Marelli instrument
Drivers seat - Carbon fibre construction, moulded to driver’s shape
Driver restraints - Takata
Driver HANS device - Toyota design
Electronic systems - Toyota / Magneti Marelli
Transmission - 7-speed unit plus reverse
Wheelbase - 3090mm
Overall length - 4530mm
Overall height - 950mm
Overall width - 1800mm
Overall weight - 600kg including driver and camera

RVX-07 Technical Specifications
Designation - RVX-07
Number of cylinders - 8
Capacity - 2,398cc
Horsepower - Approximately 740bhp
Revolutions - Maximum 19,000rpm, as required by FIA rules.
Valve actuation - Pneumatic
Throttle actuation - Hydraulic
Spark Plugs - DENSO
Fuel - Esso
Lubricants - Esso

www.f1-live.com

 

Well, I think I'm one of the few on this board that really likes the Toyota team so I'm very happy with the changes. I can only hope this new car does better with single spec tires than before. They've always seemed to have had an issue with any tire depending on the track. They certainly showed some good speed qualifying for the last two races with their new engine. The nose looks really, really high as does the rest of the chassis. It also has a really tidy rear section around the gearbox. I'm assuming that longer gearbox is a lot narrower. The rear of the side pods dives in after the radiators. Maybe this new chassis will do the trick.

Time will tell.

 

Hopefully they'll be able to make use of their enormous budget and actually show some results.

 

So it says the horsepower is approx. 740 hp. I am thinking more like 830-850 hp. Also I hate the fact FIA has put a restriction of 19k rpms on the motors.

 

On the Motorsport.com web site in an interview Toyota engine senior manager Luca Marmorini said because of the RPM limit "There is some re-tuning allowed, due to the fact that this engine now can only rev to 19,000rpm. So there was some work on port geometry, the valve and the valve lift profile, the combustion chamber, the piston shape, and to a degree we could work with the oil flow in the engine, to adapt this for reliability reasons."

Sounds like some extra work but, I'm sure it would have been done even if they were allowed to run to 20+K revs.

 

^ Agreed on the engine restrictions. I just don't see how this is going to make for better racing. If they want everyone to finish nose-to-tail, this is not the best way to go about it. It seems like another restriction that is going to cause the teams to spend untolds amount of money to get that extra .1%.

 

Not only that, but the controls that limit revs, etc aren't exactly cheap. IMO, the only rule in regard to engines should be maximum displacement.

 

^I feel the same way about engine regs.

The whole situation behind the rules of F1 seems to be heading so obviously in the wrong direction that I feel we must be missing something. The innovations of the late 80s and early 90s dwarf anything in the past decade, and yet the budgets were small in comparison to today's. It seems that there is a direct relationship between increased costs and increased regulations. It's impossible to know for sure as there is no control group to test against, but it seems that this is the case, and yet they persist which makes me suspect an ulterior (financial) motive by those in power.

 

well, i suppose they will upgrade to at least 800 bhp by mid season. AFAIK, i thought Ferrari were running 22,000 rpm last season's ending race...?

 

I agree, they need to let the teams have more freedom in the design and development of the engines and cars, otherwise F1 will no longer be technologically in the lead for motorsport.

 

Actually rev limiting is very inexpensive. Black boxes and the software to run them are also very inexpensive when you look at a F1 budget. FWIW I can get a ROM tune for my MR2 that puts the rev limit anywhere I want it along with three separate fuel maps for around $1,000. I have no problem with rev limiting on engines. The technology for running them up so high (compressed air valve trains) has been around since the early 90s and hasn't changed that much. Also having a road car that revs that high is not worth having so what's the point? "But they sound so cool!" Yea, well I thought the F1 cars of the mid 80s sounded just as cool. I don't need an extra 10K worth of RPM to make them sound better.