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If you don't mind I left all the comments about Ralf's little crisis with his business venture on the news page... and kept this page for F1. Just added all the quotes since the last update in January. Visit the Quotes Archive for all previous quotes. Also I've put all quotes from pre-season testing on the Toyota page At the next update - soon after the first race of the 2005 F1 season - I'll be starting a new Quotes page and these will move to the archive. Ralf: On the podium in Melbourne I can see this order: Renault, McLaren and Ferrari. Certainly things are not going for them (Ferrari) the way they were expected to. From an article which also mentions the changes brought in for the new season at msnbc.msn.com I really wanted to believe they'd parted on good terms but bbc.co.uk reports differently: Ralf says expectation levels at his ex-employers were not justified. "I did not know I was driving for a top team. It did not seem that way when I was there" he told a German newspaper. The high expectation levels at BMW Williams were totally unrealistic. Apart from the engine there was not much quality there and the optimism could not be justified. I do not think BMW Williams have a championship winning car this season" (Well, let's hope not for Toyota's sake) Ralf's new F1 man A new man started work for Ralf last week. Guido Piedade is his new personal assistant and spokesman, and will follow him to every grand prix, test session and official event. It's believed that his predecessor clashed with the Toyota PR department. "I'm in charge of marketing and media work" 37-year-old Guido - to be a sort of co-manager to Willi Weber - said. He used to be former team principal Dave Richards' PA at BAR. Ralf writes off big brother’s chances Ferrari have struggled with the pace in pre-season testing, never once succeeding in achieving the P1 slot during the recent Jerez test programme. Renault and McLaren on the other hand have excelled, often dominating the timesheets. And although Michael recently downplayed Ferrari’s lack of pace during testing, Ralf says more should be read into the pre-season testing times than what Michael would want. "It is pretty clear the strongest are Renault and McLaren. Renault are slightly ahead of McLaren. Then comes Ferrari, although they do look strong in the long runs. Then it's Williams, BAR and us. We should not be far away from them and I expect us to be relatively close to BAR". However, by mid-season Ralf claims Toyota "should be among the top five, meaning that we beat BAR and Williams. I hope to be somewhere among BAR and Williams, and if we are lucky one or two podium finishes will be great". Ralf also downplayed team-mate Jarno Trulli’s recent comments about the new TF105 who had said: "the car seems quick and competitive, but not over the distance - the problem is excessive rear tyre wear". Ralf, though, says that "in general, we are happy. For the tyres, I think consistency will come with more downforce. It is clear that when you have more downforce it is easier on the tyres". Ralf on Ferrari Michael Schumacher's Ferrari is currently the third quickest car on the grand prix grid. Ralf said the strongest in winter testing has been Renault. "(They are) slightly ahead of McLaren, then there's Ferrari. I think then it's Williams and BAR, then us". He also said in the interview that Toyota are far more open than his former employer, Williams. Interview with Ralf at f1.racing-live.com Following the launch of its TF105 race car, Ralf talks about what drew him to Toyota and his thoughts on the season ahead. There's a long interview at news.yahoo.com including some of the quotes already posted. There are also more quotes from Ralf and his manager. On Williams: "I tried it for six years and eventually for whatever reason it never worked out so I think it was time to move on" Ralf's manager Willi Weber is keen for Toyota to build around him in the same way that Ferrari have focused on Michael. But Ralf, while hinting that it might be a future strategy, played down such talk. "I think it simply depends on who is quickest. If Jarno is the quicker driver then it will happen around him but first of all I think that's not the priority really from where we are. For the moment it needs the two of us to work closely with the team to get results or to get the car where it should be" Ralf, reunited with technical director Mike Gascoyne after working together at Jordan in 1998, saw his move as a long-term project. "I think beyond three or four years anyway. That's what it takes. You saw it with Michael (now starting his 10th season with Ferrari) you saw it with other teams. Especially in Formula One a season goes by so fast, it's amazing. The year is over and you haven't even realised. My main target is to be world champion and now I have a perfect opportunity with a young team with all the possibilities regarding this team. They have a different way of approaching drivers and people here which I only see as a good way. Williams just had a different way" Ralf said he had been desperately looking for a team, like Ferrari, that made everything under the same roof but he had not discussed his move with his sibling before making his mind up. "When I told him that I was going to take that decision he said it was very ambitious but the right decision for the long-term, it's just a question of how long it takes. For me it was the perfect choice. It was a difficult decision to leave a team which you have been in for six years. I got along with Williams a lot better than it seemed to be sometimes. I had my fights with Frank and Patrick but that's normal, they are strong characters" Ralf speaks at news.bbc.co.uk "There are a lot of capable people at Williams but it's still a very small company. A lot of F1 is about finance power and Toyota is a far better option. At Williams, it all depends on two people - Frank Williams and Patrick Head - and they are not the youngest any more and don't have a manufacturer behind them" He will make his Toyota debut at the Australian GP on 6 March and has set his new team a target of mid-season to get themselves on the podium. "After a long period in a different team, going to a totally new place is a new challenge. But if everything runs to plan, from mid-season there should be an opportunity to get on the podium" Ralf is adamant that success will only be a matter of time. "It's a great challenge for me. You have to say if you look at it closely there is potential but it will take time" Ralf: "It's unrealistic to say we're going to win or go for a win in the first few races. But I think there's a very good starting point which we see here... it is safe to say that if everything goes to plan we could go for a podium towards the end of the year" From news.yahoo.com Ralf on his new team at sports.yahoo.com Ralf had his first taste of a Toyota back in November 2004 at a test session in Barcelona and was immediately impressed with what he found: "Joining Panasonic Toyota Racing gives me the possibility to be in a team that's still young and up-and-coming. With that in mind, I was very impressed by the professional nature of the team operations when I arrived for the first post-season tests in November. Having the engine and the chassis built in the same factory is important because everyone is working together towards the same goal. The fact that the team is based in Germany is an additional plus point for me personally and I believe that all these things give us the perfect combination for our future success together" From thestar.com.my Ralf has asked his fans to have patience with him, as he starts driving for his new team, Toyota, in 2005. He said that he was hoping to be very fast, but warned that it was necessary to stay realistic. “I have had to learn in the last six years what it is like to expect a lot, but then ultimately fail because of the reality of the situation”. He however said he was optimistic about Toyota. “It is a young team and it will need some time before it can challenge for the championship” he said, adding that his brother had also needed five to six years at Ferrari before becoming as successful as expected. The Toyota driver said that he had a three to five year plan. “But our aim should be to be able to challenge for a top three finish during races in the second half of next season” Since joining Formula One in 2002, Toyota has only managed to pick up 27 points from 51 races and in 2004 the team managed only eight points. “The car was not as good as Toyota would have liked it last season. Our biggest aim is to change that” Although his contract with Williams only ends at the end of the year, he has been able to test drive for his new team. And his impressions are good: “Of course there are things that need to be ironed out, but all in all, I am pleasantly surprised”. Ralf said that Toyota was a team in which he could actively participate. “That, of course, was one of the challenges why I joined Toyota. One can plan well into the future” He said that although the new rule changes mean the engine has to last two races and the race has to be started with the tyres from Saturday would change the status quo, he doubted whether Ferrari and his brother could be challenged. “At the moment Ferrari is so far ahead. They need to be beaten first. But all teams will have to work hard to be able to come to terms with the new rules. The same applies to Ferrari and I do not think they will be as successful as they were last season” Having said that though, he added that he still believes Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes to be the teams to beat in the new season, during which 19 races will be held for the first time. He said that McLaren had found a strong driver combination with Juan-Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. From f1.racing-live.com Ralf has a contract with Toyota F1 for the 2005-07 seasons and is targeting Championship success with the squad in three to five years: “Our aim next year will be one or two podiums by mid-season. The World Championship will be an objective over three to five years. For my brother Michael he needed to wait five or six years…” Ralf naturally hopes that championship success will come faster than his prediction, but admits he has to be realistic. “It’s a young team, its only logical that there are still things to do and we will need to have a little patience. Basically last years car was not very good. It is the main change for this season” Ralf has a new team-mate in Jarno Trulli next season and is looking forward to working with the Italian. “Jarno is much more calm than Juan. He concentrates on his work and does not get involved in the politics. He is a very pleasant team-mate to have but one who is also very quick” Trulli meanwhile recently visited the Toyota F1 facility in Cologne, presenting each member of the team with a bottle of his own wine produced in his own family vineyard. 21 December: Ralf is not expecting a thorny relationship with new teammate Jarno Trulli. Ralf said things should be a lot easier in that department at Toyota. "I think (Jarno) will be a strong teammate, so I'm really happy to have him with me. With a teammate like him, it should be a lot easier to move the whole project forwards". Trulli is also sure he'll have no trouble: "We've already chatted two or three times about things and we seem to get along okay" (from f1central.net) 6 December: Cologne-based Toyota is even more German than the BMW-powered WilliamsF1 collaboration, according to Ralf: "It's making my life easier (than at Williams between 2000-2004) We speak English in meetings but in normal conversation we speak in German" Ralf declined to add a sentimental soundbite to the speculation that Bernie Ecclestone may have axed the British grand prix. He said he'd even sacrifice one of his German home grands prix - near his Kerpen birthplace at the Nurburgring, for example - if that was the best thing for Formula One. "I like to drive Silverstone. It's a great circuit. But we're going to Turkey next year, and maybe that is better for F1. If (dropping the British GP) is good for F1, I'm happy" |
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