After an upbeat in form in , and signing Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock as a replacement for Ralf Schumacher, Toyota scored its first podium since 2006. With the rule changes in the 2009 Formula One season, the sport's previous winning teams, Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault, had a poor start to the season, and Toyota joined Brawn GP with the "double diffuser" design, making the TF109 one of the fastest cars in the opening races. After scoring three third places, and qualifying one-two at the , performance fell rapidly as other teams out-developed the Toyota. A late season improvement in form managed two second places, including Toyota's home race in Japan, and secured fifth position.