where the team had finished on the podium 12 months earlier, prompted disagreement over the team's technical direction. Gascoyne disliked the corporate way the team's management operated while team management were unimpressed by the TF106 car Gascoyne had produced and he was duly dismissed. It took a while for Toyota to replace the technical director, eventually promoting Pascal Vasselon to the role, saying that a technical department run by one man alone was becoming old fashioned. 2007–2009: Association with Williams and final seasons 2007 Trulli and Schumacher were retained by Toyota for . The Toyota TF107 was officially launched on 12 January 2007 in Cologne, Germany. Toyota began their winter testing programme in Valencia on 29 January 2007. Toyota enjoyed a competitive start to the pre-season testing at the Valencia circuit. Toyota's supply of customer engines was moved from the Midland F1 team to British former constructors' champions Williams who had, by their own standards, underperformed with Cosworth engines during 2006. Ralf Schumacher scored Toyota's first point of the season with 8th place in the year's opening Grand Prix in Melbourne. Jarno Trulli scored two points in each of the next two races, finishing 7th at both Malaysia and Bahrain. Schumacher struggled in those races, finishing no higher than 12th. During the four-week break that followed the third round, Toyota tested at the Circuit de Catalunya, where the team stated improvements were made. Team president John Howett said Toyota were looking to close down on third-placed team BMW Sauber in the constructors' standings, having maintained 5th since Malaysia. However, the team failed to score any points over the next two races. The Canadian Grand Prix ended their points drought. Ralf Schumacher scored a point for finishing 8th, and at the following event at Indianapolis, Trulli finished in 6th place. Schumacher meanwhile, was involved in a crash with David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello at the opening corner. A run of incidents meant the team did not score points until the Hungarian Grand Prix. Here Schumacher scored 3 points after he qualified in 5th place and finished 6th. On 1 October, Schumacher announced that he would be leaving Toyota at the end of the 2007 season for a new challenge, having not been offered a new contract. Toyota ended the year with an 8th-place finish at Interlagos for Jarno Trulli. Altogether, 13 points were scored, the team's lowest tally since 2004 and