Toyota strive for 100% reliability

Resigned to the fact it is never going to beat Ferrari, Mercedes or BMW, the slower Toyota team with a huge budget will be aiming for 100 per cent reliability of its cars in 2009 as it strives to take its first F1 race victory having finished the 2008 season fifth overall and making it onto the podium again.

"Toyota's goal in F1 is to win and we didn't achieve this in 2008," Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina said (nor did they in the five years before that). "We also had other disappointing results when we expected more, for example at Fuji."

"Our reliability record compared to the other teams was good, but we still lost points on several occasions due to problems and we must strive to eliminate any reliability problems because lost points can be very costly in terms of the championship."

"We will target 100 per cent reliability even if we know it's an ambitious target," he went on.