Q&A: Ange Pasquali - Toyota's Team Manager.

Toyota's Team Manager Ange Pasquali talks about how the team evolved during their debut year in F1; the dream start in Australia and Allan McNish's horrific crash in Japan...

Q:
Ange [Pasquali]. What were the aims and expectations for the 2002 season and were they realised?

Ange Pasquali:
For me personally, much of it was about trying to make sure that the team gelled well together and that was no easy task. If you look at the top teams, some of the people have been working together for 15 years. That is something we have to build up. This year it has been important to try and assimilate everything in a rational way, so that I went home after every Grand Prix I would do my homework and analyse what exactly I have learned and what I have been struggling with.

Q:
What for you were the high and low points of the season?

AP:
The high point for me was not our first point at the first race in Australia, it was our competitiveness in Monte Carlo. For such a difficult Grand Prix, the team worked so well. It was a dream. If we could have finished and scored a point in Monte Carlo it would have been the peak of the season. We qualified both cars in the top ten and had the fifth fastest lap of the race. The low point was Saturday at Suzuka and Allan [McNish]'s accident. Even though we could see that he was out of the car quickly and seemed to be okay, with accidents of that severity you are never sure. And then the fact that he couldn't compete in the race and finish off the season - that was the minus of the year.

Q:
What were the main challenges faced?

AP:
I can't honestly say that one particular thing was most difficult but again, discovering things for the first time is always unpredictable. For us, it has been 17 races of discovery. Now that the platform has been built up we will be able to go forward and put one extra floor on our knowledge every year. We want to get to the top of the tower as quickly as possible, which will be the world championship in a number of years.

Q:
How did the team evolve over the course of the season?

AP:
Over the year, I can't actually remember a major mistake of the team, and that is such a good feeling. What happened in Malaysia with the pit stop was purely because we misunderstood on the radio and Mika [Salo] came in when we didn't expect him. But that even happened to teams this year. We never faced a situation where we thought: damn, how didn't we think of that? That is good and it really means something. It means that we have worked very, very hard, believe me. What has been done behind the scenes, by everyone in the team, is difficult to explain. It's just massive, massive permanent work. Basically, what the people see at the race is just the tip of the iceberg. At the race we are just 10% of the company, with the other 90% working themselves to the bone in the company, following the race from a video conference or on the television. They might not be with us at the track, but we feel that they are.

Q:
What improvements need to be made for 03?

AP:
Technically we have to improve, because we are not yet up to speed. It is a learning curve and we have to improve in communication, our pit stops, every single thing. It's never enough. It's like a sports record. If you achieve something you have to try to make sure that nobody does it better. To prevent that it's continuous work and improvement. We were good with the engine this year and less good with the chassis, but we know that the engineers are working hard on that and they are quite optimistic at the moment. They are already looking forward to January when we roll out the TF103.