Planet-F1

Toyota aim high in Japan

Tuesday 7th October 2008

Toyota have set their sights on another podium finish at their home grand at the Fuji Speedway this weekend.

The Japanese manufacturer are hoping to pip Renault to fourth place in the Constructors' Championship and a podium finish at home will go a long way to helping them achieve their goal.

The team have already made it to the podium twice this season. Jarno Trulli finished third in France while Timo Glock secured his maiden pole when he came second at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Team principal Tadashi Yamashina says their ultimate ambition is to win races.

"We want to score a lot of points in the Japanese Grand Prix and hopefully fight for the podium," Yamashina said.

"For the rest of the season it is very important to close the gap on the leading teams because at the moment this is bigger than it should be. We will fight to finish on the podium again and we will continue to pursue our ultimate ambition, which is to win races."

John Howett, President of Toyota Motorsport, says they are aggressively developing the car in order to reach their goals.

"I am confident we can finish fourth this season because I know we have the potential and the will to achieve our targets," he said.

"However, this team does not exist to finish fourth; we exist to win. Therefore we have other targets over the remainder of the season. We aim to improve our performance relative to the other teams and that means fighting for podium finishes - we are aggressively developing the car in order to do that."