Question: The French Grand Prix marks a year since you became Chairman and team principal, how has it been?
Tadashi Yamashina: I have enjoyed it very much and I have especially enjoyed getting familiar with all the team members and the different cultures within our team. I know the performance and the team work of all my colleagues is getting better and better. Everyone is very motivated and one of the big jobs for me is to encourage all the people in our team, not only the race team but also the team members back at the factory, in every department. I want to encourage all of them and I am enjoying this job very much.
Question: Has the team changed in the last year?
Tadashi Yamashina: I think the team has changed and improved. From a technical point of view, everyone at the factory and in the race team has increased car performance and reliability - this is clearly seen from our results. When we set ourselves a target, every engineer and every team member is making a strong effort to achieve it. Everyone is contributing and I am proud of their efforts because we are seeing the results.
Question: Do you enjoy the challenge of Formula One?
Tadashi Yamashina: I very much enjoy the challenge of competing in Formula One. This job is very different to my previous foreign assignment at Toyota Technical Centre USA because the results are so immediate. We race every two weeks and after every race we must face the consequences, so if the race has not gone well we are disappointed and we have to take action. But road car development takes years, so this is a big change. Luckily I enjoy the challenges we face every day.
Question: What are your goals for 2008?
Tadashi Yamashina: We always dream of the centre of the podium and we will never give up but when you look at car performance you can see there is a gap to Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber. Therefore my current target for this year is to continue to close this gap and finish races in the top six and fight for the podium.
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