JULY 7, 2004

Toyota confirms Ralf deal

Panasonic Toyota Racing has finally got round to confirming that it has signed a three-year contract with Ralf Schumacher.

"It is with pleasure that we can announce Ralf as one of Toyota's race drivers for the 2005 season," Tsutomu Tomita said. "He has proven himself to be an extremely quick racing driver in his career, and I am sure that his vast experience will be extremely beneficial to our team. We have not finalised who will partner Ralf in 2005, and this is something we are in no rush to decide on. We are happy with the job that Cristiano and Olivier are doing for us and both of them are under consideration for the remaining race seat next season. There are still eight races of the season to go and everyone at Toyota is fully focussed on improving our level of performance to gain as many championship points as we can."

The team will make the decision on the remaining race seat towards the end of the season.