Toyota TF108 | Conceptcarz.com

Toyota TF108
By: Jeremy McMullen

If there is one team in Formula One that is the most paradoxical it would have to be the Toyota team. Year after year Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes throw hundreds of millions of dollars into their team and prove to be an almost unbeatable one-two punch. Toyota invests probably as much or more, and yet, a celebration like no other breaks out when the team merely gets on the podium. Toyota has proven to be the worst return on investment—amazing given the company's passenger cars. Toyota has been the exception—money doesn't translate into success. This has to be the most confusing thing. It isn't that they don't have the resources. The problem has to lie someplace else.

Since the debut of the team back in 2002 and until 2007 the team has only been able to amass 163 points. Now of course there have been teams that have been around for longer in Formula One's history that would have loved to have scored that many points. But to truly get an idea how justified Toyota's critics are some more numbers are needed to put things in the correct perspective.

Granted, both McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari have been around for much longer and that pays dividends when developing a winning team. However, Toyota is throwing as much money at their team, if not more, than these two championship winning teams. So, it only takes a comparison of Toyota to McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari during the period of 2002—2007 to get an idea of how bad things really are. From 2002—2007, Toyota, as a team, has accounted for a total of 163 points. During that same period McLaren-Mercedes earned 568, with the 2007 points total being thrown out due to a cheating scandal. To really put things in the proper perspective Toyota has only to be compared with Ferrari. From 2002—2007, Ferrari has amassed a total of 1,146 points! Clearly, money helps make any team successful. But, it's how that money is invested that makes all the difference.

Toyota, however, is hoping its investment in its design, the TF108, will pay off big dividends. Overall, the TF108 is a bit different than its 2007 predecessor. Instead of a high, narrow nose the 2008 design sports a wider more drooping nose. Over the course of last season Toyota developed an upper wing profile that was blended into the nose. Interestingly, this design idea was abandoned but picked up on by Ferrari. Instead, Toyota abandoned the incorporated upper wing and nose profile and instead went after and adopted a design that spans the entire length over the nose like that on the McLaren Mercedes.

The TF108 retains the twin/zero-keel arrangement to which the suspension members are attached. This design feature helps to keep disruptions to airflow underneath the nose down to a minimum. The twin-keel design works in unison with the sidepods being pulled in tighter at the bottom. With the bargeboards and turning vanes, the more contoured radiator inlets still pull in the necessary cool air while the tighter design allows unnecessary air to pass around the car causing less drag. The TF107 of a year ago had more square-like radiator inlets and this obviously proved to be less effective. So, to help control the airflow, and thus, reduce drag and help with stability, Toyota has updated the turning vanes that attach to the sidepods. The scoop caused by the attach point to the sidepod catches more of the air trying to pass around the car. Besides this, the turning vanes have been redesigned to a larger spec, especially aft. This factor helps maintain the airflow around the car so that it will not collide with the rest of the airflow passing by the car.

Taking a page from the Renault team, Toyota decided to incorporate the rearview mirrors into the turning vanes. However, by the first races of the season the more conventional location of the mirrors attached to the nose reappeared.

An interesting concept on the TF108 is the incorporation of the chimneys and the t-wing located out on the sidepods. While these features have been incorporated together on many cars by many teams, Toyota has gone to seemingly greater lengths using the chimney as the support for the t-wing, thereby throwing out any need for a support pillar for the small wing. This arrangement appeared on the TF107 but had been altered slightly for this year. With this design feature of using the chimney for support, the opening used to expel built up heat is cut out of the side of the t-wing/chimney arrangement instead of out of the top like most designs.

With the loss of driver aids like traction control, stability at the rear of the car is of utmost importance. Therefore, the dorsal fin-style of the engine cowling has a greater arc on this year's design to help direct airflow smoothly back toward the rear wing. As the season progressed, however, this cowling design changed to a style similar to that of other teams with a major portion of the spine extending backward almost to the rear wing, looking much more like a fin. Toyota also incorporated McLaren-style control vanes to the sides of the engine cowling to help direct and control the rather turbulent air that passes over that section of the car.

Looking at the rear of the TF108 it is interesting to note Toyota must have found a good balance at the rear of the TF107 because from the cockpit back there is very little difference from the TF108 to the TF107. This can be a good sign for the future because of all the parts that make up a Formula One car, the one area that experiences or causes the greatest amounts of turbulence around the rear of the car are the rear wheels. To combat this Toyota utilized some interesting design concepts to help deal with the turbulent air that causes instability. First of all, the leading edge of the rear wheel flip-ups is extended and practically incorporated into the sidepod ears similar to that of the Renault R27 of a year ago. The flip-ups help to direct air over the rear wheels, and thereby reduce some amount of the turbulence caused by the air striking the wheel. Toyota actually utilized a double-decker rear wheel flip-up design on the TF107 that remains on the 108 to further help with turbulence by directing the air that is passing underneath the upper flip-up over the rear wheel still.

To further aid in defeating turbulence back near the rear wheels, shrouds inboard of the wheels that connected to the flip-ups help to direct airflow out the back of the car and less likely to become enveloped with the turbulence the spinning wheels themselves cause.

However, unlike most designs, the inboard shrouds don't merely attach smoothly to the flip-ups creating a barrier around the rear wheel. Instead, on the TF108, the leading edge of the inboard shroud extends further forward purposely splitting the airflow to either go inside of the shroud and out the back of the car, or, to go to the outside and over the rear wheel flip-up. This is just another deliberate attempt to control airflow and, thereby, control any instability.

Attached to these inboard shrouds is a mid-span wing that attaches to the engine cowling. As with the other teams up and down the paddock, this device helps control and channel the air before it leaves out the back of the car. This helps to smooth the airflow that passes out the rear of the car, thereby increasing the efficiency of the rear wing.

One interesting thing about the TF108 is, when it comes to the rear wing, the support pillars are back on this year's design. On the TF107 the entire rear wing structure was held in place by the endplates connected to the lower wing element that attached to the gearbox housing at the rear of the car. This design allowed for no disruption of the airflow underneath the rear wing and out the back of the car because there were no support pillars in the air's way. But that has changed this year. However, Toyota's designers have tooled the TF108 so that the pillars and the engine cowling spine work together to direct the airflow at the back of the car, and thus, minimize the effect the presence the pillars may have. When it comes to the rear wing this is about the only change Toyota has made from the TF107 to the TF108.

Every aspect of the design is focused around stability. Of course one of the more controversial pieces Toyota has implemented on the TF108 is the cooling shields. The cooling shields help extract the hot air developed by the brakes so to help cool them and to help increase the integrity of the brakes over the length of a race. But with stability being the all-important focus it is no wonder these devices have seen some controversy since they undoubtedly help smooth turbulent airflow passing to the side of the wheels.

Stability is the most important design feature within F1 teams now that traction and launch control systems are banned. Computers controlling the slippage of the wheels could be used to overcome any instability. With the aid gone every team is scrambling to provide their drivers a stable platform to help keep the car glued to the track no matter whether the car is accelerating, decelerating or, especially, turning. Toyota believes the TF108 to be a stable platform that will enable its drivers to take the team to the next level…the team's first win.

Toyota's driver lineup has been less than stellar over its short history, but it has and has had capable drivers that just seemed unable to deliver. Of course, not all of the problems are to be blamed on the drivers. In fact, the TF107 was accused of 'falling off' as a race wore on. And, given the fact the team once had and then lost Mike Gascoyne, one of Formula One's technical talents, says there could be other factors hindering the team's performance even beyond the driver or the car. Yet, no matter what other contributing factors there are, the first stops for blame, if a team is performing poorly, is either the driver or the car. Right now, it is difficult to truly point the finger at the element(s) that is not performing up to expected levels. But Toyota is hoping and trusting in the TF108 to help erase any doubts toward at least one of those two important investments.

	Site Map \| Contact \| About Us \| Terms Of Use / Privacy Policy \| Links \| carAuctionValues
	Vehicles \| Wallpaper \| Events \| Price Guide \| Motorsports \| Articles
	Vehicle information, history, and specifications from concept to production. © 1998-2013 Conceptcarz.com