Gascoyne: Toyota exit knocked confidence

The now Spyker technical chief was dropped by Toyota after the management disagreed with his long-term aims for the Japanese car manufacturer. That decision ironically came the day after Ralf Schumacher took a podium finish at the Australian Grand Prix.

Although Gascoyne is regarded as one of the tough men of the paddock, speaking in an interview with this week's Autosport he has said that he was hurt by the events of last year.

"Inevitably it did (knock my confidence), yes - if only for the fact that you want to achieve the targets that you set out to achieve," said Gascoyne.

"For Toyota, with the resources they have, that meant winning their first Grand Prix and going on to win the world championship. We didn't do that. They still haven't done it."

Gascoyne began work at Spyker at the end of last year, having sat out a period of gardening leave, and he is hoping to help move the team up the grid.

But despite having huge ambitions, he has said that his role at Spyker will be his last in F1.

"I don't want to do this forever, that's one thing I definitely know," he added. "I saw coming back here as an opportunity to have some fun and help this team with what I've made a career out of: turning places around.

"For us to get a podium would probably be bigger than Toyota getting a win, so there's very clearly something for us to aim at.

"But this will probably be my last job in F1. If I'm here for three years that will take me to 46 and I'll have worked in F1 for 20 years and I think by then maybe it'll be time to go off and sail around the world."