Toyota's senior chassis general manager Pascal Vasselon has admitted that the performance of the TF107 was simply unacceptable.
The Cologne-based operation went further backwards last year and from scoring 88 points in 2005, when the team finally seemed to be getting somewhere, '07 turned out to be even worse than 2006.
"We cannot be happy with our results," Vasselon confirmed in Toyota's annual report. "Our car was generally not fast enough to compete with the top three teams:
Ferrari,
McLaren and
BMW. We found ourselves in a group with
Williams,
Red Bull and Renault - sometimes we were at the front, sometimes further back.
"We did not make enough of our possibilities. Overall, we had the speed of
Renault, but they scored four times as many points as we did. We have to analyse why that happened.
"We wanted to be number three in terms of performance, but instead we only managed to get to number four or five. We obviously have to work harder on the aero side, because that has become the major factor for lap time."
Despite the disappointment though, Vasselon maintained there were some positives to take from 2007: "In
Formula 1 you are always learning and that is especially true in our case," he continued. "Our learning curve is probably steeper than most other teams' simply because we are a relatively young team.
"We have learned lessons in terms of car performance, race management and start management. The positive thing about mistakes is that they make you stronger when handled in an efficient and constructive way.
"We still have work to do if we are to compete with the best teams but we are constantly learning and continuously improving."
Toyota's senior engine manager Luca Marmorini meanwhile concurred that the team underperformed, although he too found something to be pleased about.
"We are happy with our engine performance this year. We had very few major reliability issues and that is positive," he added. "However, I have to say that I don't think we got the results we deserved.
