Salo: Imola was a reality check

Mika Salo has admitted that Toyota's difficult San Marino Grand Prix was a good reality check for the newest team in Formula 1

The Finn scored two sixth places in the first three rounds in which Toyota impressed with its speed and reliability. But at Imola last weekend, Salo retired with a gearbox problem after 26 laps, while team-mate Allan McNish failed to get off the grid at the start following transmission failure too.

Neither of the TF102s were anywhere near as competitive as they were in Australia, Malaysia or Brazil. But Salo believes the bump back down to earth may not be a bad thing.

"For me I think it's a good school for us now, that things are not so good as they seemed to be after the first three races," he told Autosport.com. "It's the first real difficult circuit where you have kerbs and all kinds of corners. We were bad all weekend."

Imola's kerbs are an important feature at the circuit because drivers must ride over them to set a good lap time.

"The kerbs were the biggest problem, and also for some reason while the Michelins seem to be quite OK, we couldn't get any grip out of them," Salo said. "My tyres looked like brand new after a half a race, so there's something we have to look for."

For a full Q&A with Salo, click here.