imported_John
05-18-2002, 12:18 PM
Brazilian Cristiano de Matta was the second CART driver in two days to get his chance in a Toyota Formula One car at Paul Ricard on Friday.
The Newman-Haas regular was given the evaluation run as part of a promise by Toyota. He completed 97 laps and set a best time of 1:15.082, which was nearly two seconds quicker than CART compatriot Toranosuke Takagi, who drove for the team on Thursday.
De Matta said the experience was memorable and said his fitness had held up well.
‘I am very impressed with this experience,’ he said. ‘I did 97 laps but I am not really tired. The car was much lighter to drive that in CART but more demanding on the neck due to much higher G-Forces.
‘The high speed corners were particularly impressive and I didn't expect such high grip levels from the grooved tyres.’
IRL driver Helio Castro Neves will also get his chance in a Toyota machine shortly.
Nice feed back from some one outside of F1. He said he experienced higher G forces in the F1 car on a circuit as apposed to banked ovals. I found that rather interesting. All this is an Toyota F1 car, just imagine he sat drove in one of the top teams, liek Ferrari. I'm really excited to see the comparison between CART and F1 when they both visit Montreal. Not so much lap times, but how the CART cars handle the chicanes and stuff.
The Newman-Haas regular was given the evaluation run as part of a promise by Toyota. He completed 97 laps and set a best time of 1:15.082, which was nearly two seconds quicker than CART compatriot Toranosuke Takagi, who drove for the team on Thursday.
De Matta said the experience was memorable and said his fitness had held up well.
‘I am very impressed with this experience,’ he said. ‘I did 97 laps but I am not really tired. The car was much lighter to drive that in CART but more demanding on the neck due to much higher G-Forces.
‘The high speed corners were particularly impressive and I didn't expect such high grip levels from the grooved tyres.’
IRL driver Helio Castro Neves will also get his chance in a Toyota machine shortly.
Nice feed back from some one outside of F1. He said he experienced higher G forces in the F1 car on a circuit as apposed to banked ovals. I found that rather interesting. All this is an Toyota F1 car, just imagine he sat drove in one of the top teams, liek Ferrari. I'm really excited to see the comparison between CART and F1 when they both visit Montreal. Not so much lap times, but how the CART cars handle the chicanes and stuff.