MF1 financially strong, says Kolles

MF1 are considered among the smaller teams in Formula One today, with respect to the size of staff and the annual budget. But Kolles believes it's not the size that counts - but what you do with it.

"It is not all about money," he said at the team launch today. "You have to have money, but you also have to know how to use the money.

"I think it is a matter of efficiency and reaction time, and of young, motivated people. This is what we are at the moment. We are fighters and sometimes this counts more."

Kolles nevertheless emphasized that Midland was not strapped for cash, like Jordan Grand Prix were before the Midland Group buyout.

"[Our financial situation] is stronger than some people are thinking," Kolles added. "But we are quite confident that we know how we use our money, and that we don't necessarily throw it out."

MF1 driver Tiago Monteiro was also optimistic that his team can make advances, stating the 2006 budget is double that of last year.

"It's still a very small team at the end of the day compared to the top teams, but we have a budget close to double to what we had last year," Monteiro said.

"Now that we have more budget, we can plan ahead a lot better. There's a business plan and we can see [where we're going], which is very important.

"We can feel those changes in the team, even though 90 percent of the people are the same."