Da Matta tests for Toyota F1

[Jay]

From itv-f1.com

ChampCar star Cristiano da Matta said he was impressed with his first taste of Formula 1 power.

Da Matta, who currently lies third in the ChampCar title race, was given a test by Toyota as part of a plan to bring together all their worldwide motorsport programmes. Another ChampCar driver, Tora Takagi, drove the TF102 on Thursday and Brazilian got his chance on Friday.

Da Matta completed 97 laps of Paul Ricard, clocking a best time of 1m15.082s, some 0.8s down on regular Toyota driver Allan McNish.

He said: "I am very impressed with this experience. I did 97 laps but I am not really tired. The car was much lighter to drive than in CART but more demanding on the neck due to much higher G-forces.

"The high speed corners were particularly impressive and I didn't expect such high grip levels from the grooved tyres."

Although his test on Friday was a one-off, Da Matta is rumoured to be keen to follow in the footsteps of Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve by switching from ChampCars to Formula 1.

Some might see this as 'Geez..another driver heading to F1'. I don't. I see it as another driver showing that Cart drivers are talented enough to compete in F1.

[macdaddy]

In the cases of JV and JPM, the CART drivers crossing the pond seem to bring more excitement to F1. Good luck to Tora, Cristiano, and Helio!

[BootsOntheSide]

I really want to see Castro Neves have a go at F1, I think he can cut it, and frankly he's wasted in the IRL as he's not a spectacular oval racer. Takagi I was impressed by, but even more so by Da Matta as he'd never sat in an F1 car and wasn't that far off McNish's pace. Out of the current CART field, I think Da Matta and Scott Dixon are the best bets to be F1 standard before long (note how these two are both in my fantasy CART team)

[Speedworx]

Dixon isn't that good. So far this year he has been outclassed by the sacked Oriol Servia.

[macdaddy]

Even if he is good, he isn't ready.

[f1manoz]

da Matta has proved to be one of the most talented drivers at the moment. He would certainly be able to mix it with the big boys.

To get within 1 second of a regular driver having never sat in a car before in a spectacular result.

[macdaddy]

True, but that last second is the hardest one to shave off.

[Jay]

True...but most of finding that extra second is in finding the right setup. The rest is the driver feeling confident enough to push the car to the max.

I think he could easily cut it in F1 given the chance. I don't think those cars are the handful they used to be with traction control.

[SevenGrain]

In my opinion, of all of the CART regulars, daMatta has the best chance of being successful in F-1. The guy really is awesome.

[mac]

I remember at the start of 2001, Oriol Servia was quite impressive in a test for Prost. I think he was pretty close to Alesi's times. Unfortunately he couldn't find the money for the drive, and Moneybags Mazzacane got it.