Kolles praises Midland's progress

"I think that we are improving a little bit," Kolles said on the team's website. "The gap to the cars in front of us is getting smaller, and it's becoming more and more obvious to everybody.

"We've proved since Imola that the gap is getting smaller. We're not 4.5 seconds away from the front-runners anymore; we are maybe 1.8s-2.0s off the pace.

"And to the mid-field cars that are our direct competitors, it's a matter of a few tenths. In the last few races, we've been quicker than Red Bull, so we are making progress, and that's positive."

Midland, whose owner Alex Shnaider is considering an offer of 100 million Euro to sell the Silverstone-based squad, are the only team along with Super Aguri yet to score a point this year.

Their best result has been an 11th place finish at the Australian Grand Prix.

Despite that, Kolles is upbeat about their progress.

"Nobody in F1 is standing still, but obviously we are closing the gap quicker than the others are moving forward - at least the ones immediately in front of us," added Kolles. "As long as we continue to make gains like this, it's fine.

"In Canada, Williams was one-and-a-half tenths away, and the rest of the cars were only a few tenths away. We know that we have improvements coming in the wind tunnel, and we'll bring them in race by race.

"I think that we have one of the most efficient teams, and I'm very proud of the people working for us and the job they do. Pound for pound, we are extremely effective."

Midland, powered by Toyota, are yet to announce announce what engines they will use in 2007 following the Japanese carmaker's decision to switch to Williams.

Kolles said they have enough options available to secure a good unit.

"The latest is that we have no problems in this respect. We have enough options, and we have very good options," he said.