As the teams and drivers get their hot water bottles out for the start of winter testing, our boys at Toyota have a few new faces. Ex-Williams racer Ralf Schumacher and ex-Renault and Monaco race winner Jarno Trulli bring forward one of Toyota’s strongest ever driver pairings to date. In fact, this is one of only a number of teams to have a strong driver line-up, except the top 3 (Ferrari, Williams and McLaren). Even Mike Gascoyne the team's technical chief, feels that with the right environment the team could be hitting the top 3 finishing positions come the end of a race. Sadly, we will have to wait until the start of next year to see if Toyota’s new car is anything up to it’s rivals', and with the budget they have that most companies dream of it’s going to be hard for Toyota not to perform.

So it’s all new on the Toyota front, but I’m sure the second biggest difference on the grid is a silver and blue VW Beetle carrying a large Red Bull can on it’s back-side touring around paddock area’s during the Grand Prix weekend. Hang on, VW Beetle?! I’m sure it was a reborn Jaguar Formula One car that’s gone shopping and crashed into the shelf of Red Bull cans… Why yes! Red Bull’s take over at Jaguar Racing should really put wings on their cars in order to move up the grid. Dietrich Mateschitz the man behind Red Bull’s move in has been planning his new advertising campaign for sometime now, from Sauber to Arrows and has finally been able to grab Jaguar by the horns for his own Formula One team. But is this an advertising campaign or a full out Formula One outfit? Well, I’m not so sure, if they employ their Red Bull racer’s then it’s going to be hard for them to make progress as for most of them driving an F1 car will be a whole new experience. But if they get the Coulthard’s, Davidson’s, and Heidfeld’s involved, their experience will come into play and then they might have a chance of moving forward. It’ll be a tough year for them, no questions asked, but if they can keep in touch with the leading independent teams like Sauber then they might be able to build on this for the 2006 season.

Now a quick look at testing. So everyone’s back at school, both Toyota drivers have taken to the track with Ralf Schumacher exploring his new machine. Both have been showing lots of promise with them getting the cars into the top 3 on a number of occasions. Toyota’s adopted brother Jordan have been busy testing parts for their 05 racer using recycled washing machines (Labour Government have stepped in to help Jordan’s money worries…) and the weather has frustrated B.A.R’s new Star Wars concept car with little dry running. Sauber have been giving Bridgestone their two middle fingers as they improve with Michelin rubber and Williams have put their new son Mark Webber on the frontline allowing him to express he has no worries about who his team mate could be, but claims test driver Pizzonia is "a liar" and "a loser"… You can tell Webber is a good piece maker. Red Bull has been putting their own drivers behind the wheel of some repainted Jaguar’s, with F3000 star Vitantonio Liuzzi getting on terms with this experienced team mate Christian Klien. And finally Montoya has got his hands on a McLaren and went fastest on his first day of running.