Toyota Monza test notes 2003-09-02

Panasonic Toyota Racing kicked off a bumper three-day, three-car test at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy today, the venue for the next round of this year's Formula 1 World Championship, which takes place next week. The team is using its ...

Panasonic Toyota Racing kicked off a bumper three-day, three-car test at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy today, the venue for the next round of this year's Formula 1 World Championship, which takes place next week. The team is using its full complement of drivers at this week's test with race drivers Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta and third driver Ricardo Zonta all on hand for testing duties at this all-important session. Panis celebrated his 37th birthday with 66 laps of the Italian track, with Da Matta and Zonta completing 66 and 84 laps apiece over the course of the day.

Olivier Panis:

"We have an extensive programme ahead of us for this week's test in preparation for the Italian Grand Prix, which takes place here next weekend. It was a generally positive first day. We concentrated on general set-up work and tyre evaluation, but we need to continue in this way, as we have a lot to do tomorrow and Thursday."

Cristiano da Matta:

"It's good to be here in Monza this week because it gives the whole team a good opportunity to work on the car's behaviour at this track before we come racing here next week. We carried out a lot of work today and completed a respectable number of laps, so all in all, it's a good start to the week."

Ricardo Zonta:

"We tried many different things today working more towards long-term development, rather than specific to the next grand prix. However, we also did some work with sensors and the tyres, trying to monitor the way the tyres work in Monza. Over 84 laps, we could check a lot of different aspects on the car and gather lots of data."

Olivier Panis
Chassis: TF103/03
Best lap time: 1m23.15s, 66 laps completed
Working on: General set-up work for Monza and Michelin tyre work

Cristiano da Matta
Chassis: TF103/07
Best lap time: 1m24.13s, 66 laps completed
Working on: General set-up work for Monza and Michelin tyre work

Ricardo Zonta
Chassis: TF103/06
Best lap time: 1m24.20s, 84 laps completed
Working on: Long term general development work