Kolles expecting tough season

Kolles, however, is optimistic that the team can make a big step forward after the disappointment of 2006.

Spyker, who took over the Midland team last season, start the year with revised hopes after hiring Mike Gascoyne as their technical chief. They will also use Ferrari engines and will have a second wind tunnel at their disposal.

"I hope we will start it better than we anticipate it," Kolles told reporters during the launch of Spyker's F8-VII.

"Obviously we are not the type of guys who say 'we are looking forward, we will fight for the world championship, we will fight for points'. We are very realistic, we think it will be really tough.

"But we have the two wind tunnels working 24 hours and we are pushing and I think this car will be a big step. The car looks great, there is a new concept behind it, the concept before was a forward bargeboard car and now we have a rear bargeboard car, so I am very positive.

"We are pushing like hell. Mike, he knows the people, he came into a home which was almost done so we need Mike with his experience to give the young engineers the right direction in which to go and I think this integration was very quick and very fast because he knows the people for a long time."

The team failed to score any points during the 2006 season as Midland, who had previously bought out Silverstone-based Jordan.

Kolles says 2007 is the season to start making progress.

"We have to improve," he added. "The first year was a rescue year, a lot of people did not understand this because they thought Jordan was a great name. Jordan was a great name but the team was not existing any more.

"It was very tough and we had to rescue it. This was the first year. The second year was to stabilise it somehow, to stabilise the personnel, to stabilise the technical department and now is the time to improve and bring it forward."