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Panasonic
Toyota Racing may be based in Cologne, Germany, but its spiritual heart
is back in Japan, making the Japanese Grand Prix a very special event.
The
team has been based in Germany since 1979 but throughout that time
there have been strong links to Japan; and that is as true as ever in
2008
The
bond between Japan and the team has been strengthened in recent years
with the increased adoption of the Toyota Way back at base in Cologne.
Following
the Toyota Way principals, Panasonic Toyota Racing has returned to form
this season - finishing on the podium twice and pushing to take fourth
in the Constructors' Championship - and for Chairman and Team Principal
Tadashi Yamashina, the reasons are clear.
"There
are several key reasons for the improvement in our results," he says.
"One is the operation of the team, the teamwork, in that everyone is
pulling together. This includes the people who go racing and the people
who stay behind at the factory. The operation has improved, so
everybody is working to make the team better."
Kaizen,
or continuous improvement, is a cornerstone of Toyota Way philosophy -
and it has become a key principal at Panasonic Toyota Racing as well.
But how is this theory translated into practice in the team's technical
centre? Yamashina-san has one simple explanation: "The principle of
enjoying your job by exchanging information with others is fundamental
to Toyota."
As
part of that philosophy, he shares an office with the team's top
management, making communication straightforward and showing the kind
of open-minded attitude which allows innovation to thrive and sows the
seeds of future success.
"Routine
communication can be carried out by email, however far away anybody
might be," Yamashina-san adds. "But for face-to-face discussions,
people can get together straight away. If you want to say something to
someone's face, you can do it there and then.
"Another
thing is that you are more involved with everyone's daily work. With
three of us in the room this means that you get more idea what is going
on elsewhere within the company."
With
over 30 different nationalities, Panasonic Toyota Racing is a united
nations of Formula 1. Among the 650 or so staff in Cologne many are
Japanese, and Yamashina-san believes all nationalities have learnt
valuable lessons from each other, giving the team its unique potential.
"The
strength of the Japanese engineers is that they have lots of experience
of working in the Toyota Way," he says. "The strength of the European
and other engineers is that they have been working in Formula 1 and
motorsport for many years. We combine their respective strengths, so
that the Japanese engineers teach their counterparts when the Toyota
style of working is most appropriate, and learn from the local
engineers when the Formula 1 approach is best, feeding what they've
learned back to Japan. It's a mixed approach."
But
the team has more than Japanese engineers and mechanics - it has its
very own Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi, a rising star who is third
driver as well as a successful GP2 racer.
The
22-year-old, from Hyogo in Japan, has won races in both the GP2 Asia
and GP2 Series this season; his first in the category since stepping up
from the Formula 3 Euroseries. As if racing in Formula 1's unofficial
feeder category was not demanding enough, he has also contributed to
Panasonic Toyota Racing's strong form this year through his testing
work.
Kamui's
path to Formula 1 has been plotted by the Toyota Young Drivers
Programme (TDP) for several years. The TDP scheme is designed to
produce the best possible racing drivers for Toyota, but the fact Kamui
is Japanese is a welcome bonus.
"It's
our dream for Toyota to win the championship with a Japanese driver in
a Toyota car, and we now have Kamui Kobayashi as our test driver," says
Yamashina-san. "The team is right behind him and hoping that he can
become a top driver. At the same time, I will definitely not be giving
him preferential treatment and letting him drive our car just because
he's Japanese. I've told him he'll have to work hard and get there on
merit!"
And
Kamui is certainly working hard; already this year he has competed in
30 GP2 races and tested for 11 days for Panasonic Toyota Racing. "I've
dreamed of being in Formula 1 ever since I was a small boy," he says.
"I passed the TDP audition, as they call it, when I was 14, and have
been committed to Toyota ever since.
"I
fully realise how lucky I am to work in such an environment. It doesn't
really put pressure on me, but I put continual pressure on myself and I
don't forget that I've been in a more fortunate position than others in
getting this far.
"Now
that I'm close to racing in Formula 1 and I'm trying to break through,
I've realised what an incredible achievement it would be if I ever made
it into Formula 1, when there are only 20 drivers in the world
competing."
His efforts with Panasonic Toyota Racing, not to mention his rapid development, have certainly won him many admirers.
Executive
Vice President Yoshiaki Kinoshita says: "He is amazingly bright. What's
particularly outstanding about him is his opening lap. On the first lap
after the race starts, he'll overtake three cars in dry conditions and
something like seven to 10 in the wet! I've never seen a driver like
that before."
Director
Technical Coordination Chassis Noritoshi Arai concurs: "In terms of his
skill and judgement as a driver, he's made great improvements. If he
can hang in there and produce good results in races, I'll have nothing
to complain about."
Great
improvement is a theme running throughout Panasonic Toyota Racing and
it describes not just the significant progress made in the last 12
months, but also the ambition for the years to come.
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