By Karl King
January 8 2005

CHECK MATES

Jarno on Ralf
"Ralf has always been very quick and I've got a lot of respect for him, so I hope we can work well together. I have had some good battles with my team-mates down the years, so I am sure that it will be another hard battle with Ralf. The best way to improve a team is to respect your team-mate. I certainly respect Ralf and he is an intelligent person, so I don't foresee any problems."

Ralf on Jarno
"Jarno has always been a good colleague anyway, even when we were in different teams. He is a very easy guy - as we both are - so it has been great so far. For the moment we are really busy with pushing the whole project forwards. I think we make the ideal driver line-up for Toyota because we will continuously push each other to find new limits."

Jarno on Olivier and Ricardo
"I know both Olivier and Ricardo pretty well - especially Olivier because I spent two seasons together with him at Prost - but I also know Ricardo from our time together at Jordan. Nowadays I think it's very important to have experienced drivers testing as well as racing because the time we have is always more and more limited, and we need skilled people helping us to develop the car. Olivier and Ricardo make a very good pair and they will be of valuable support as we develop the TF105 during the season."

Ralf on Olivier and Ricardo
"It is always important to get test drivers who you can rely on. Unfortunately with so many races there is always some testing that we won't be able to do ourselves, so you need someone who you can call on and trust. Olivier and Ricardo are really good choices. Both of them have a lot of experience and speed, so that is really great. I have been used to having one experienced guy testing and that always helped a lot. So I must say having two now is beneficial for everyone in the team. It also retains an important element of stability within the team. The period we are in is very important, and it is especially important on the development side to keep some direction."