Howett insists Toyota committed to F1

With the team's new TF108 having failed to shine in early testing, Toyota have been surrounded by speculation that the company's Japanese president Katsuaki Watanabe is getting impatient for results.

However, speaking exclusively to this week's Autosport, Howett says that the company is fully committed to the future - even though the pressure is on them to improve results.

"It's Toyota culture to challenge everything," he said. "But it's a constructive philosophy. A lot of the company's senior executives really like to win so, if anything, we face a passionate pressure to perform. The media reports of the squad withdrawing are pure, malicious scare-mongering."

Howett also made it clear that recent comments from team principal Tadashi Yamashina, that he had two years to improve fortunes, were simply a reference to his own job - rather than the future of the team.

"Like most Toyota managers, Yamashina is on a three-year assignment. Clearly, his personal target is to win a Grand Prix within the next two years, when his F1 assignment ends."

Howett also played down the new car's unimpressive start in testing, saying the TF108 has already exceeded their expectations.

"It's a completely different car compared with TF107," Howett added. "Firstly, we have to understand how it works and keep improving the package. At first, it could be a little step backwards - but that should ultimately pay off once we know how the car works and how we can make it quicker.

"TF108 is exceeding our expectations. It is extremely good and we have no intention of introducing a B-spec car - particularly ahead of the big changes we will need to make in anticipation of the TF109."