Spending to achieve success in Formula One
Big budget Formula One team Toyota must avoid copying Chelsea Football Club by paying to secure success, according to Ross Brawn, the technical chief of reigning world champions Ferrari. Brawn has been impressed by the performance improvements made by Toyota this season but he believes they need to turn their money into good assets to seek a successful race-winning outfit for the future.
"I think Toyota are on an upward slope but it`s difficult to know when it will level off," said Brawn. "They`ve certainly made pretty good progress from last year to this year, but we don`t know where they will be next year. One of the things that Toyota have demonstrated is that they are certainly willing to commit to budgets that could exceed those of any other team. They announced a second wind tunnel, which is a 50 or 60-million-dollar project."
But the Germany-based team are determined to spend their way to the top in Formula One and Brawn added: "We have to be careful that we don`t end up with the team that spends the most money being the team that wins everything. Then it`s just a spending contest and not an engineering and driver contest. I wish them every success but I hope Toyota don`t end up as the Chelsea of Formula One."
Toyota impressed early on this season with strong finishes for Italian Jarno Trulli and German Ralf Schumacher but the second half of the season has failed to match the early promise.
Williams chief Sam Michael added: "I think they`ve obviously had a good year, regardless of the other teams, because even in the early parts of the year they were challenging Renault and McLaren as well. They don`t look as strong towards the latter half, but they`ve obviously done a good job and well deserve their position in the championship. They`ve taken three or four years to get there and they are on that road now."
Renault technical chief Pat Symonds believes Toyota`s sudden rise to the top at the start of the year was down to the changes in regulations and he said: "I think it is interesting that we`ve had some reasonably new rules this year. The aerodynamics were significantly different on the cars and I think Toyota came out of the gate running, they were quick from the start, and that suggests that they tackled that change very well."
"As the season has gone on, they probably haven`t quite kept up the relative pace and maybe there`s been a bit of inconsistency but they are relatively new and consistency and development is certainly helped by experience. They have got a big budget but they will get the job done. It is Toyota`s way, but the step they made this year was down to interpretation of the rules or certainly getting the best out of the new regulations in the shortest time."
BAR Honda technical chief Geoff Willis said: "The challenge is always, as you build up in the level of your competition in the business, knowing why you are quick or why you are better or why you are worse. It is important to continue performance from year to year so I`m sure they will continue to be a serious player. But they will need to work out what they have done well and not well this year to do better next year."


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