When aren't Toyota dissapointing?
They have the exact same problem as Honda did. Too many people back in Japan with no clue about F1 telling a bunch of yes men on the pit wall how they want things to go, while the people that know what is needed are ignored.
Too many cooks and all that.
BMW are the team I dont understand. Mclaren, Ferrari and Renault have all made big steps forward, BMW seem to be going backwards. Yet they have a strong technical team, and in theory a decent trackside group.
I know they put a lot of time into KERS, but so did the 3 teams above.

Funny but FOTA said had torro rosso asked, they would have been granted a test. The differance with Schumi was, he's never driven the F60, where as Jamie has driven this years torro rosso and also has been in competitive competition constantly. Schumi's done a couple of kart races.
However me thinks there is a little bitterness towards being booted from Fota involved.
Michael cant provide a serious testing return from a few hours of driving the car.
However personally I think it makes it all the more fun come friday practice 1 to see the looks on their faces when he comes in the top half of the table.
There was no harm in asking. You dont ask you dont get.
It just means he's back in the F2007 and getting in the simulator.
I doubt he's too bothered. FP1 will be based around learning the car, FP2 will be based around learning how to set the car up (maybe to the point that the last 20 minutes can be used for serious race or qualy prep) Then over night into FP3 will be spent getting ready for either qualy or the race. I would imagine more focus will go into the qualifying area. Michaels race pace is well known to be metronomic and perhaps unmatched, but these days its quali where races are won it seems.
Valencia to me has to be considered a test session. Results are not essential, Spa the week after is where he needs to be ready for. It's where he stands the best chance to win. And if Felipe is really healing like superman, then you have to expect him back in the car for Monza.
For me the biggest issue will be the team.
I might be wrong, but this will be the first time he's had to drive a race with no Jean Todt or Ross Brawn in his ear. I know he went without Brawn for his first couple of years at ferrari, but then he had todt. His race engineer will be new as well, Chris Dyer now being the main man on the pitwall and also Kimi's engineer. I dont recall Michael ever working with Smedley, and the "felipe baby" approach wont work with Michael.

straight line/fairly high speed turn round.

Have you heard how much he's reportedly being paid? $3 million a race. I might be wrong but over a season of races that would make him highest paid driver on the grid. Kimi currently highest at $51 million. or $2.8 million a race.

expat wrote on Aug 5^th, 2009 at 9:42am:

Apparently it was, but an unnamed team turned the request down. Williams again rumors say.