Panis plays down Toyota hopes

The Frenchman topped the timesheets in last week's Barcelona test, and senior insiders at Williams now fear that Toyota could be ahead of them on pace by the start of the season.

Williams driver Ralf Schumacher said: "I think they might be the surprise of the year. They did a perfect copy of the 2002 Ferrari and it seems to work."

But Panis believes that Toyota will be held back by its lack of experience, although he does admit that the new TF103 is showing great potential.

He said: "It looks pretty good for a new team, but the last thing I want is the team to be distracted by the apparent speed of the car.

"There is a lot of work to be done and only in Melbourne will we know exactly where we are. It is a good chassis, good engine and the tyres are good - but this year there will be a lot less time to set-up the cars and there is a lot involved in strategy for qualifying and the race. In all these things experience counts."

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