The Toyota TF101 was a Formula One car used solely for testing purposes during the 2001 season, in preparation for the team's full-scale assault on the series in 2002. The car was designed by Toyota F1's chief of chassis Jean-Claude Martens and was driven by

Mika Salo Mika Juhani Salo (born 30 November 1966) is a Finnish former professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One between and . His best ranking was 10th in the world championship in 1999, when he stood in for the injured Michael Schumacher ...

and

Allan McNish Allan McNish (born 29 December 1969) is a British former racing driver, commentator, and journalist from Scotland. He is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, most recently in 2013, as well as a three-time winner of the American Le Ma ...

. The TF101 was unofficially called the "AM01" by Toyota until the name of its successor, the TF102 was announced. This was the first Formula One car to run on Esso fuel since the 1960s.

Development

The car was designed and built from the ground up by the staff at Toyota Motorsports GmbH (TMG) in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, Germany over a period of nineteen months, in preparation for Toyota's entry to Formula One in 2002. After the initial unveiling of the car, the test team, including drivers Mika Salo and Allan McNish took on an intensive testing programme, accumulating a total of 3,000 laps and 22,967 km at eleven F1 circuits around the world, and also the specialist testing facility at

Paul Ricard Paul Louis Marius Ricard (; July 9, 1909 – November 7, 1997) was a French industrialist and creator of an eponymous pastis brand which merged in 1975 with its competitor Pernod to create Pernod Ricard. Ricard was also an environmentalist and t ...

in Southern France. During the development of the car, the initial designer André de Cortanze was replaced by Austrian

Gustav Brunner Gustav Brunner (born 12 September 1950, in Graz) is an Austrian Formula One (F1) designer and engineer. He started his career in racing car design at the German-based constructor McNamara. He first entered F1 in a brief spell working for the AT ...

and he oversaw the continued development of the car, eventually molding the TF102 car, the team's debut racegoing machine based on the work done during the 2001 season. The car was handling poorly and being overweight, Mika Salo described it as being "a piece of shit" and called the initial designer of the car André de Cortanze a "donkey".

References

External links

TF101 Evolution at Toyota F1 official siteTF101 Facts at f1db.com
{{Toyota F1 Toyota Formula One cars Formula One cars that never raced