Toyota boss gives glowing halfway report

The Japanese manufacturer's German-based effort has scored two points so far this year, and goes into this weekend's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring hoping to register once more.

"We are now over half way in our first Formula 1 season and we have learned a lot," said Andersson. "If I compare the team that we have now to the one that we took to Australia for the first race, the difference is unbelievable. We have progressed a long way. Having said that, we will continue to push. For this race we have some new parts for the car, so I hope that we will be more competitive than we were at the last race."

Toyota's Cologne factory is just 40 minutes away from the Eifel track, and lead driver Mika Salo is upbeat about the team's chances this weekend.

"We had a really good test in Jerez last week, where we learnt a lot about car set-up and about some new parts that we will be running at the Nurburgring," he said. "By the end of our three days there, the car was handling much better than at any other time this year. I am confident that we won't have similar problems to the ones that we had in Canada."