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Toyota is aiming to depose BMW as the third-fastest team in Formula 1 during the course of 2007.
Team president John Howett believes the Japanese manufacturer can escape from its current tight battle with Renault, Red Bull and Williams, and hunt down BMW.
"There are two or three challenges facing us now the European season is starting," said Howett.
"The first is to maintain our position at the top of the second group of teams and make sure we don't slip back.
"Then, looking forward, the main ambition now has to be to catch and pass BMW as the first step."
Howett added that Toyota had already proved its ability to make up ground as a championship progressed.
"It's clear from last year that we can make major improvements in performance over a season after we moved from a pretty slow start to a competitive position at the end of the year," he said.
"We are intending to do exactly the same this year but we are acutely aware there are another four, five or six teams out there trying to do exactly the same.
"It is a motivating challenge for the people here to do it again and to show we are an emerging and serious challenger on the F1 grid."
He said that Toyota had already taken giant strides in 2007 following a troubled build-up and some disappointing pre-season tests.
"In Melbourne we were quicker than people generally expected and in Malaysia I think we closed the gap on the top three teams by about 50% compared to Melbourne," Howett said.
"That was more or less maintained in Bahrain.
"That's a result of the great effort from the team in all areas.
"After a successful test in Barcelona we are looking forward to seeing where we are relatively this coming weekend."
Source = ITV F1
Team president John Howett believes the Japanese manufacturer can escape from its current tight battle with Renault, Red Bull and Williams, and hunt down BMW.
"There are two or three challenges facing us now the European season is starting," said Howett.
"The first is to maintain our position at the top of the second group of teams and make sure we don't slip back.
"Then, looking forward, the main ambition now has to be to catch and pass BMW as the first step."
Howett added that Toyota had already proved its ability to make up ground as a championship progressed.
"It's clear from last year that we can make major improvements in performance over a season after we moved from a pretty slow start to a competitive position at the end of the year," he said.
"We are intending to do exactly the same this year but we are acutely aware there are another four, five or six teams out there trying to do exactly the same.
"It is a motivating challenge for the people here to do it again and to show we are an emerging and serious challenger on the F1 grid."
He said that Toyota had already taken giant strides in 2007 following a troubled build-up and some disappointing pre-season tests.
"In Melbourne we were quicker than people generally expected and in Malaysia I think we closed the gap on the top three teams by about 50% compared to Melbourne," Howett said.
"That was more or less maintained in Bahrain.
"That's a result of the great effort from the team in all areas.
"After a successful test in Barcelona we are looking forward to seeing where we are relatively this coming weekend."
Source = ITV F1
