McNish: We've Exceeded Our Expectations

Scot Allan McNish admitted on Thursday that the new Toyota Formula One team have "outshone" their expectations this season after scoring two points already in the first five races of the year.

Team boss Ove Andersson claimed before the start of their first year in Formula One that the Cologne-based team were simply aiming at qualifying for all 17 Grands Prix.

But McNish's teammate Mika Salo scored a sixth-place finish on the team's debut in Australia and then added to that with sixth again in Brazil, prompting the Scot to admit that things have gone better than expected.

"I think overall we have outshone expectations and also to some extent our own expectations," McNish said today in Austria. "I don't think we considered we would be able to be so strong, especially in race trim.

"Obviously the fight gets tougher throughout the season because everybody improves and I expect that to continue. It is going to get tighter and tighter through qualifying, especially on a circuit like this.

"From a personal point of view, I was obviously disappointed how the first laps went in three of the Grands Prix, but the two that were okay, then I was happy with my race performance," he added.

"And in the last two Grands Prix I have got the car a bit more to my liking so I can actually lean on it in qualifying trim a lot better and the results have proved that. Overall, I am personally happy with it, but it is a moving target and we have got to get better."

Toyota, who are believed to have one of the biggest budgets, completed an actual Grand Prix simulation at the A1-Ring during their preparations for life in Formula One last year, and McNish admitted that it will help the team in Austria this weekend.

"From the point of view of actually having tested here then that will help us a little bit because we have some data from the circuit," he said. "We have got a bit of an idea and we saw that when we went to circuits we knew already we were just a bit more on the ball earlier."

But the Scot admitted that the experience of the four-day Grand Prix weekend in an empty A1-Ring was a bizarre experience - most notably with a mock press conference in a deserted media room.

"Basically as a new team we needed experience of not just testing but also of all the timings and realities of a Grand Prix weekend," he said.

"Obviously we had to do that in private ourselves so we ran everything as per the regulations for a Grand Prix weekend, including going out onto the grid 30 minutes before the race. It was like a race but with only Mika and myself and a few spectators.

"(We) even sat in here and simulated a press conference but there was no one here! It was stupid for us to do anything different because you have restrictive times when it comes to a race weekend.

"You have also got restricted space even in the garages, so if we were to turn up to Australia without any understanding of what that was going to be like, not necessarily us as drivers but the whole team from front to back then it would have been a bit naive.

"From a structural working point of view of the team it was a very beneficial thing to do because we came having learned a lot but also with a few questions and things we needed to change."