Panis upbeat about new Toyota

At AUTOSPORT International today (Saturday), Panis spoke about testing the car at Paul Ricard in France this week. Although poor weather conditions hampered its efforts, he says his initial feelings are good.

"I feel we can do well with this car this year," he said. "We have been testing the car this week in Paul Ricard and it looks very positive. It is difficult to say how much we have improved, because of the bad weather, but I have been very impressed with the back-end of the car."

His team-mate for 2003, reigning CART champion Cristiano da Matta, is also upbeat about the coming season.

"It has been going well so far, it's a shame about the weather though," he said. "These cars take some time to get used to. Although they have the same speed and power as CART, the weight and grooved tyres make the car quite different in high and low speed corners.

"It's very exciting to be in Formula 1, because it's as good as it gets. I know how serious Toyota is about motorsport, and I'm sure they will win one day in F1. It's up to us to make it happen as soon as possible," he added.