Toyota TF104

The car was the third and final Gustav Brunner and René Hilhorst designed Toyota in Formula One, and it was considered as another "evolutionary step" up from its predecessor the TF103, which in turn had been labelled a "evolutionary step" up from the TF102 used in 2002. Luca Marmorini continued to lead the engine design.

The car was initially driven by the same pairing as in 2003; Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta. However, by the time the season came to a conclusion, both drivers had been replaced by Italy's Jarno Trulli and the team's Brazilian ex-test driver Ricardo Zonta respectively.

Development

Development on the car had begun in earnest, some ten months prior to its unveiling. Upon launch, designer Gustav Brunner said; "The TF103 was a highly competitive package. Unfortunately, we couldn't get all of the performance out of it. Theoretically, the TF104 is an evolutionary step up from the TF103, but in fact, the TF104 shares not a single part that we used with the TF103. We improved every single inch of the chassis, and redesigned every important internal component. We achieved a great leap ahead aerodynamically, made the car lighter overall, and increased the rigidity of the chassis".^[2]

This continued approach was deemed to be too unambitious by many critics and this was confirmed by the overall performance of the car. Ultimately, this led to Brunner's dismissal midway through the season and it was the former Jordan and Renault Technical Director Mike Gascoyne who came in to replace him.^[3]

Known for his ability to assess weaknesses, and re-invigorate a team, Gascoyne started work immediately on revising the TF104.

TF104B

The resulting TF104B chassis couldn't be considered revolutionary either, but neither was it supposed to be with Gascoyne merely working to try to eradicate some of the initial conceptual flaws in the Brunner design. The revised car was introduced at the German Grand Prix to some positive effect,^[4] but rather than continue on that upward trend, Gascoyne ordered the freezing of any further development to concentrate on the upcoming TF105 chassis to be used in the 2005 Formula One season.

Espionage allegation controversy

During the season, the car's similarity to the previous year's championship car, the Ferrari F2003-GA, was so noted that there were accusations of the team of using stolen data files from Scuderia Ferrari. The case was investigated by the district attorney of Cologne, where Toyota F1 is based. Following the allegations, Toyota was reported to have refused to send the data back to Italy because they did not want Ferrari to take advantage of their own data, which had been mixed in with Ferrari's.^[5]^[6]

Performance

Overall the car and the season was considered to be a disaster, with the team, now in its third season of competition, managing only a second consecutive eighth place Constructors' Championship finish. The ramifications of the car's poor performance were some key departures; technical director Gustav Brunner was fired mid-season and Cristiano da Matta soon followed having been blamed himself for lacklustre performances.

With the arrival of Mike Gascoyne as technical director, alongside the announcements of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher for 2005, it could be argued that the Toyota F1 operation took on a slightly different feel over the course of the 2004 season.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Points	WCC
2004	Toyota	TF104	Toyota RVX-04 V10	M		AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA	9	8th
					Cristiano da Matta	12	9	10	Ret	13	6	Ret	DSQ	Ret	14	13
					Olivier Panis	13	12	9	11	Ret	8	11	DSQ	5	15	Ret
		TF104B			Cristiano da Matta												Ret
					Olivier Panis												14	11	8	Ret	14	14
					Ricardo Zonta													Ret	10^†	11	Ret		13
					Jarno Trulli																	11	12

† – Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

References

^ statsf1.com/en/moteur-toyota.aspx
^ "Introducing the TF–104, Toyota's F1 Car for the 2004 Season". Toyota Gazoo Racing. 17 January 2004. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
^ "Toyota grab top F1 designer". BBC. 15 October 2003. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
^ Wilkins, Robert (20 July 2004). "German GP preview - Toyota Racing". Crash.net. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
^ ""Toyota Used Stolen Ferrari Data," Says Attorney" Speed Channel. Retrieved 3 December 2004
^ "Ex-Toyota men face spying charges" BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 January 2006

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Toyota TF104.

Panasonic Toyota Racing

Personnel: Ove Andersson; Noritoshi Arai; Gustav Brunner; Humphrey Corbett; Richard Cregan [fi]; Frank Dernie; Remi Decorzent; André de Cortanze; Gianfranco Fantuzzi [pl]; Luca Furbatto; Mike Gascoyne; Dieter Gass; Mark Gillan [ja]; John Howett; René Hilhorst [ja]; Yoshiaki Kinoshita [pl]; Norbert Kreyer [fi]; John Litjens; Luca Marmorini; Jens Marquardt; Jan Monchaux; Francesco Nenci [fi]; Ossi Oikarinen; Ange Pasquali [fi]; Nicolò Petrucci; Dago Rohrer; Julien Simon-Chautemps; Mark Tatham; Keizo Takahashi; Tsutomu Tomita; Pascal Vasselon; Tadashi Yamashina; Jörg Zander

Noted drivers: Timo Glock; Kamui Kobayashi; Cristiano da Matta; Allan McNish; Olivier Panis; Mika Salo; Ralf Schumacher; Jarno Trulli; Ricardo Zonta

Formula One cars: TF101; TF102; TF103; TF104; TF104B; TF105; TF105B; TF106; TF106B; TF107; TF108; TF109; TF110

Related: Toyota; Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG)

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This page was last edited on 16 December 2023, at 00:21

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