Toyota 'could fight for F1 title'

Toyota could have been fighting for the Formula One title this season, had it not pulled out of the sport at the end of 2009.

That is the view of Toyota F1's chassis guru Pascal Vasselon, who told German media that the T110 car the team had developed for 2010 had exceptionally high levels of downforce, as well as clever technologies, such as the blown diffuser, which only Red Bull had in place for the start of the season. Ex-Toyota racer Timo Glock made similar comments earlier this year having seen the data from early tests.

Read more on why Toyota pulled out of F1, plus see pics from its time in the sport

Points are a measure of downforce used by Formula One teams to give it a quantitative unit; 30 points would add an extra 130kg downforce at 300kmh. Vasselon said, "When we stopped development, we had 20 to 30 points more downforce than the last version [T109].

“We had far exceeded our goals, for even the T109 was good enough for podiums. Many of our aerodynamics people have changed to other top teams and we know our downforce values were quite high.”

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Vasselon described the design as extreme, revealing the T110 would have had the highest nose on the grid, as it was the only way the blown diffuser would work perfectly.

It is believed that struggling Spanish team HRT is close to a deal to base its 2011 car on the T110. Jens Marquardt of Toyota Motorsport said, “We would convert the car to match the new rules, and also provide aerodynamic updates."

Alan Riddoch

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