F1 News
- June 18, 2007
Is it all over for Ralf?
My Monday morning question surrounds Ralf Schumacher. Is it time for Toyota to throw him out, and get someone more hungry into the team?
My reasoning goes something like this. Yes he may be the brother of Michael, but he sure as heck does not have his talents (any of them). Toyota brought him on board hoping that the ‘Schumacher influence’ would rub off on the team, as it did with Ferrari. But this has not happened.
Instead the Toyota team pay him one of the largest wages on the grid, and for what? He is consistently out performed by his team mate, in both Qualifying and Races.
Toyota need someone who can help develop the car, and that is not Ralf.
Who could they buy in though?
Jarno Trulli seems to be doing a sterling job, so if they have their ‘old hand’ it would seem they need some young blood, someone to give the testing and development some fresh insight.
In that vain they have Kohei Hirate and Kamui Kobayashi, but they don’t have the required background yet, and are perhaps too immature to promote from their own driver program. Franck Montagny is a possibility, but perhaps not quite what is needed in a full time driver.
From the GP2 background there are some great talents in the wings. Piquet Jnr is being courted by Renault. There is Timo Glock that could be brought in, and then there is Bruno Senna as well.
Whatever Toyota do, they need to sort something out. Without a big shake up, that includes the management structure, the Toyota team will just keep spending money, and not going anywhere.
