Toyota Hoping for Competitive 'Home' Race

Toyota are looking forward to a competitive European Grand Prix this weekend at the Nurburgring circuit, a race that will take place only a few kilometers away from the Japanese squad's Cologne factory.

Thanks to the proximity of the track, Toyota will have two extra factory-based days prior to the event compared to the foreign-based teams. The Nurburgring race will mark the half point of their rookie season, and team boss Ove Andersson admitted he is glad with the progress made.

"We are now over half way in our first Formula One 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, who have scored two points so far in 2002, will introduce some new parts for the Michelin-shod TF102 car this weekend, and following a positive three-day test at the Jerez circuit last week Finn Mika Salo is confident of a strong weekend.

"We had a really good test in Jerez last week, where we learned a lot about car set-up and about some new parts that we will be running at the Nurburgring," said Salo. "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."