Its often said that Toyota is the richest team in Formula 1, but that is incorrect. Despite not being the biggest spender, it does have the biggest factory. Situated in the Marsdorf area of Cologne in Germany the team has a 36 square kilometre facility, so big in fact that some of the 700+ staff cycle round the wide corridors from department to department.What really strikes youthough when you arrive is just how understated it all is. The buildings are far from pretty and there is no great fanfare or 'look at me' architecture. This is all about function. Even the two entrance halls are fairly small - in one reception area there is a solitary TF106 and in the other a TF103 sits alongside the Toyota GT-ONE Le Mans racer and a Corolla WRC. The latter area is only really used for tour parties.
TMG began life as a centre for Toyota‘s World Rally Championship programme and the factory in Cologne became home to seven WRC titles before looking towards sportscars. In 1998 and 1999, Toyota competed in the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours and achieved 2nd place in 1999 after starting the race from pole position. Since then, TMG has been responsible for realising Toyota‘s entire Formula One programme, with the cars designed, built and managed from Cologne.
TMG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation and is the international headquarters of its Formula One project. The factory which once gave birth to rally and sports cars has been expanded into a full-blown Formula One facility including two high-tech wind tunnels.The official name of the Toyota Formula One Team is Panasonic Toyota Racing and the staff of over 700 includes 32 different nationalities, underlining its reputation as a United Nations of Formula One. Panasonic Toyota Racing is also one of only two teams in Formula One to design and build the complete car under one roof.
Much of that team effort in Cologne is focused on designing and manufacturing the car and engine, so how did the TF108 go from the drawing board to the race track? John Howett gives a glimpse behind the normally closed doors of the technical centre, starting with the carbon composites department, which prepares the super-light and super-strong carbon fibre which makes up much of the TF108.
“This is one of the most important departments in any Formula 1 team, where the main body and structural parts are made,” John explains.
“It is one of the busiest assembly shops in the whole factory. “We translate the designs into real components. Carbon fibre is cut very precisely from large sheets and transferred to the lay-out area. From here the carbon fibre is placed in moulds in a specific direction to optimise the strength of the component. We use an autoclave to bake the material under high pressure and temperature. These ovens work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”All the clever carbon fibre designs need real grunt to get them moving and that is found in the engine workshop, where each RXV-08 engine is carefully built. John adds: “We have highly skilled technicians, probably more skilled than Swiss watch makers, working on our engines.”
To get the best out of an engine, technicians must gain as much data as possible to fine-tune every element of the power plant and this is where the engine test bed comes in. John revealed: “The finished engines are installed on to test beds and we can undertake many different types of test and evaluation - power development, mapping for each specific circuit or durability testing. Basically we can simulate everything in these facilities.”
Inside one of the dyno cells at TF1
Senior General Manager Engine Luca Marmorini says: "We work hard so
our engine performance improves during the season, even considering the
regulations. We have looked at how we use the engine, concentrating on
factors which do not directly affect lap time but are still a major
part of a car's performance over a race. So we work on improving fuel
efficiency for example because, even though this doesn't bring extra
speed, it still has an impact on our overall result."
our engine performance improves during the season, even considering the
regulations. We have looked at how we use the engine, concentrating on
factors which do not directly affect lap time but are still a major
part of a car's performance over a race. So we work on improving fuel
efficiency for example because, even though this doesn't bring extra
speed, it still has an impact on our overall result."
Even more than engine performance, aerodynamics play a critical role in determining if a Formula 1 car can compete with the best and, to be at the cutting edge, the wind tunnel is a vital tool. A scale model, identical in every way but just half the size, is subjected to a strong wind - over 50 metres per second - which gives engineers the opportunity to see how it behaves when moving at speed. “The aerodynamic performance of a Formula 1 car is one of the largest contributors to its overall performance,” John adds. “The wind tunnel area is one of the most secret and restricted-access areas of any Formula 1 factory. Here new parts are fitted to a model and tested rigorously and remorselessly to gain additional performance.”
Inside one of Toyota's twin tunnels
Scale models are built on site
Even before the car turns a wheel in anger Toyota Racing engineers already have a bank of information to draw on after simulating the car's behaviour around the track. An array of sophisticated simulation techniques are employed to give the drivers a head start when practice begins in Canada, ranging from the wind tunnels, engine test benches, a seven-poster rig and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A full-size TF108 is placed on a hydraulically-powered rig, which uses data from previous seasons to shake and shudder the car exactly as though it was driving over the bumps and kerbs of the Ile Notre-Dame. This provides important information regarding suspension and damper settings, giving engineers a strong indication of what works and what doesn't.
Shaking it: The seven post rig is in near constant use.
After a chassis or any other component is completed it is thoroughly checked by the inspection staff, who use a wide range of CMM and other metrology equipment. From the humble Vernier to giant computer controlled arms.
Parts with mileage on them are also inspected periodically like those found on aircraft.
Finally the completed cars are put togther in the race bays
