This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Rookie Mistakes Toyota Justified On All Fronts

Rookie Mistakes

Peter Sauber struggled to get Kimi Raikkonen into Formula One. The youngster had only a handful of single seater races, leaving teams concerned that his pace was inadequately backed up with racing experience to be safe in the sport. Sauber argued persuasively with the team heads, and pointed out to Bernie Ecclestone that a hot, talented youngster would make good copy for the sport. That, and some mature tests, earned Raikkonen a probationary period to race, and the rest, as they say, is history. The same concerns were thrown up when Sauber introduced Felipe Massa, however the Raikkonen experience made the task easier. Ferrari's interest in getting him experienced at the top level did no harm, either.

Sadly, both drivers are coming under fire for their actions at Monza.

There is some indecision in the paddock as to whether the McLaren line is accurate - namely, that Raikkonen was not told Sato was coming, so he was paying inadequate attention. After all, no matter how many hot laps a driver has put in, it is common to stay 'on it' for the in lap, too. McLaren are known to have good awareness of who is where on the track at all times, which would make this a basic error. Rather, the question mark is on whether Raikkonen was attempting to baulk Sato, keeping him behind to ensure he did not upset the Finn's preparation for his hot lap.

When Massa collected Pedro de la Rosa, few saw it as anything other than hotheaded madness: the Jaguar had passed by cutting a chicane, so was staring a drivethrough penalty in the face if he failed to yield. Yet Massa made an attempt to retake the position that was clearly never viable, taking both out of the race. Inexperience and temper are not a good combination, and are extremely dangerous at any level, let alone racing at the 350 km/h achieved at Monza in an F1 car. Sauber believed a ten place penalty in Indianapolis is harsh - but de la Rosa, at least, is wondering how Massa escaped a ban.

Having said that, if Heinz-Harald Frentzen can be wedged into the car, the FIA will have to decide whether the penalty belongs to the driver (and apply it to his next appearance) or the team (who will then see Frentzen pushed down the grid anyway) - or whether they are leaving a loophole for teams to escape the punishment in future.

Toyota Justified On All Fronts

Coming away from the Italian Grand Prix, a lot of people are wondering whether Toyota might not be right to fly in the face of conventional wisdom, after letting both their drivers go.

They certainly started the season well, scoring points in both the opening events, and gaining praise along the grid. Mika Salo was consistently able to qualify in the top ten, and they looked like challenging for points when the top three teams struggled with reliability. As a first attempt at the sport, the challenge was highly credible, and recognition followed. So much so, that Coulthard was advised to seek his future there. Of course, the relentless pace of development in F1 had to tell eventually, and Toyota fell back.

Some of the blame for dropping off the pace is pure inexperience. Toyota could not have anticipated the progress that the midfield teams would make during the season, nor the best directions to explore for in-season gains; likewise, their development program does not allow them to develop next year's car completely in parallel: it takes time and resource off moving this year's car forward. But then, this season was not about winning races - taking part and fitting in was the name of the game, learning the ropes for what comes next: winning races.

In order to win, a number of things have to happen. The car has to be developed aggressively, both before and during the season. That means focused effort from the initial concept, through design and manufacture, and onto the test track. From there on, the development depends mostly on driver feedback to identify the areas where development can most benefit pace, and driver talent to draw out the best speed from what's available.

This is where the decision to replace both drivers was made. Allan McNish, for all his work on developing the car, has not lived with Mika Salo's pace, particularly in qualifying. Salo, although quicker than McNish, is only 'good' at feeding back for developing. And, as demonstrated in Italy, he does make mistakes. As both have deficiencies that the team believes can be improved upon, so their driver line-up next year should show it.

Olivier Panis came away from McLaren with a serious reputation for developing cars. And by keeping Villeneuve honest for a couple of seasons, it is plain he is no slouch on track either. His role for next year, primarily, is to put some serious development time in on the chassis. Currently lined up for the other seat, contract pending, is Cristiano Da Matta. Toyota's experience of his talent in CART - where he is about to wrap up the title - and a test earlier this year, lead them to believe he has the talent and raw pace to make the conversion to Formula One. In the future, they picture his talent is what they will need to compete with the likes of Juan Montoya and Michael Schumacher, when their car is on the pace.