McNish vents his annoyance

Allan McNish has expressed his disappointment at the way Toyota handled the announcement that he will be axed from its Formula 1 team for next year

Aug 29, 2002, 2:54 PM

The Japanese car giant made it public yesterday (Wednesday) that McNish and his team-mate Mika Salo were both out for 2003, and that British American Racing's Olivier Panis had already been signed. Autosport.com had reported earlier in the day that Salo had been informed of the decision.

McNish told Scottish newspaper The Herald: "I've known for a couple of weeks that things were going to change, and let's just say I don't think the decision was reached based on ability.

"There are times when F1 is not a nice business to be in and that's generally when politics takes over.

"I certainly got no warning that the team were going to issue a statement today. That's very, very disappointing after the camaraderie we established in the team during the season."

McNish is looking at his options for next year. He claims to be confident that he will "continue racing at the top level".