McNish Confident New Car Will be a Step Forward

Scot Allan McNish is looking forward to the launch of his new Toyota charge in December, confident that the team have made major steps forward after a season of testing.

The team drafted in design guru Gustav Brunner early this year after their test car put in slow laps in its initial runs. And McNish, who has kept an eye on the 2002 car's development in the wind tunnel, believes Brunner has been able to turn things around and he will have a car which will let him shine next year.

"Honestly, if the figures (from the wind tunnel) are about right, then we are actually looking quite good," said McNish. "I think things should be alright. I have seen the first moulds of the chassis, but I haven't seen the full car yet."

Toyota's testing programme is now coming to an end, and McNish is disappointed that the team failed in their plan to launch the car before they are forced to stop testing in the middle of November.

The Scot says that since the new car has come on-line in the factory, the testing programme has concentrated on learning tracks and accumulating data, rather than developing the car to go faster.

"That is frustrating," McNish said. "But we are working on other areas, and it is one hundred percent the right decision to go the way we are going."