This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Toyota Playing at Home Silly Season Update: Peak Season

Toyota Playing at Home

Having surprised the Formula One community by putting together a competent Formula One team, scoring points on their debut, and showing a creditable performance at every circuit, the sport's new kids on the block are heading to their 'home' Grand Prix with an optimistic outlook.

As things stand, the Nurburgring has characteristics that suit Toyota: the low grip surface combined with plenty of slow corners that should offer the engine a chance to show off the power the drivers have at their disposal. Factoring in the latest changes makes for an interesting step forward relative to the competition. Changes to the suspension and aerodynamics have made it easier to set the car up, whilst tweaks to the traction control software will improve fuel consumption accelerating out of the slow corners, offering wider choices in deciding strategy.

There is some chance of rain for the weekend, in which case the resulting lottery conditions should favour the Bridgestone runners, handing a performance advantage to the likes of Sauber, Jordan and BAR. Whilst it might put a cat amongst the pigeons, Toyota do not expect rain to be of much benefit, even with improved balance.

Dry running optimism aside, Toyota recognise that even if everything goes to plan, points are certainly going to be a product of others' misfortune rather than the team's outright performance ­ but that is no reason for failing to take advantage of as much luck as possible. Key to that, it is no surprise to learn, is qualifying in the top ten, hanging it out for the race, to be ready to capitalise on retirements among the front runners.

That will still be no mean feat, however, for Toyota are not the only team bringing developments online after the flyaway to Canada.

Honda are finally believed to have their new engine ready to rock and roll, though no one at Jordan is telling whether they will be running the new unit for some of the sessions, or the whole weekend. Jordan expect they have the legs on Sauber, probably Renault and potentially McLaren, putting another top six qualifying performance in their sights. BAR, meanwhile, have been getting to grips with their heavily revised aerodynamic package, looking to leverage a decent balance from the car to make something of this engine: they'll need it too, as the power curve is earning some interesting descriptions from the drivers ­ and not featuring the word 'smooth', either.

Renault have been playing with their electronics, and still hope the weekend will give them a chance to take points off McLaren. The latest tweaks are not to offer a significant improvement off the start line, but rather, offer a couple of tenths over the lap: more than the difference between qualifying eleventh or eighth last year, in fact.

Silly Season Update: Peak Season

It's no accident that the mid-point of the season sees the most activity for the Silly Season, as most drivers are still unconfirmed for the following year, in some cases, even after their positions have been announced. This season is no different, even with the Ferrari seats taken.

John Watson's very public advise to David Coulthard that his future is with Toyota - and not with the McLaren team - might well have stuck a chord. Toyota themselves have been vocal in support of their drivers for this season, without committing to the 2003 line-up. Mika Salo, to date, has had the best of the season, resulting in the general opinion that Allan McNish could find himself in a testing role next year, if the team decide they can afford to bring on board a top line driver ­ like Coulthard. Until McLaren either announce Mika Hakkinen's continued absence from the team for 2003, or Coulthard becomes consistently quicker than Kimi Raikkonen, rumours of his departure will only continue to gather momentum.

At BMW-Williams, Juan Pablo Montoya has reputedly had the option on his contract taken up ­ but the big money signing of Ralf Schumacher last year has changed the balance considerably. Instead of taking Montoya on for another two years on what amounts to peanuts, the contract has reputedly been redrawn, yielding an escalating scale over four years complete with performance clauses: both parties have a way out if everything goes pear shaped.

Confirming Montoya and Schumacher is expected to take place around the British Grand Prix, as the option on Jenson Button has to be taken up by then. There has still been the odd muttering that Schumacher could be swapping places with the Briton, but the financial cost to Williams of placing Schumacher elsewhere makes that a difficult proposition: they have to pay him his multi-million dollar salary, no matter which car he sits in.

Given his anticipated release from Williams, the world expects Button to come to terms with Renault in short order; that said, Flavio Briatore is well known for playing a strong hand when it comes to signing drivers, and Button might not be prepared to strike the deal. If it all goes pear shaped, he could be looking to McLaren or Toyota for a drive next year.

Fernando Alonso's recent test at Jaguar, now followed by Mark Webber's planned outing, is putting the cat amongst the pigeons there. The team are busy getting their act together, before Ford pulls the plug; Eddie Irvine is an expensive driver, for all his ­ now dated ­ knowledge of working at the sharp end in Ferrari. The rumour mill expects Jaguar to put him out to pasture, taking on a charger to make the most of whatever car the team put together.

Clearly, Jaguar are struggling to develop the car into a competitive position through driver feedback during the season, so there is a logic to moving the focus from experience to outright speed. That said, with Webber known for his feedback and consistency, and Alonso for his outright speed, there would be no surprise if both found their way into a driving role with Jaguar next year.