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Toyota at an Indy disadvantage

Toyota will head to this weekend's United States Grand Prix with low expectations of a good result, according to driver Mika Salo

The team, which is coming to an end of its first season in Formula 1, has not seen the Indianapolis road course before and will be on a steep learning curve this weekend. Salo also believes the nature of the track - which uses part of the famous oval before diving into a twisty infield section - will not suit Toyota's TF102.

"It's great to be going to Indianapolis because it is such a famous track and has such a great history," said Salo. "But I think this will be a difficult weekend for us because it is not the kind of track that traditionally suits our car. And, while our rivals are fine-tuning their cars on Friday, we will still be finding a baseline from which to work because we have never been there."

Team boss Ove Andersson has also admitted that Toyota will be up against it this weekend. "This will be a difficult race for us because we have never previously tested at Indianapolis and, judging by our simulations, it is a very technical track," he said. "Now we understand the TF102 better, we are hopefully in a better position to deal with learning new tracks than we were at the start of the season. It will be an interesting challenge, that's for sure."

Allan McNish said: "I've never previously been to Indianapolis but it's definitely an exciting place to go because it has such a lot of history. I've only looked at a map of the track and the key to being fast looks to be the infield section. Having said that, you don't want to run too much wing in race conditions because you'll be slow down the pitstraight and are likely to be overtaken. I'm looking forward to the whole experience."

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