Trulli laments poor start of season

Toyota, one of Formula One's biggest spenders, endured a dismal start this season after struggling to get to terms with the Bridgestone tyres following their switch from Michelin.

Although the Cologne-based squad set a target of winning their first Formula One race before the start of the year, they have only finished on the podium once in 11 Grands Prix.

Toyota, however, have started to raise their game in recent races, having enjoyed their strongest outing of the season in France last weekend.

Trulli, who needed nine races to score his first points of the season, believes Toyota need to hit the ground running in 2007.

"I think that we have to start the year better, like we did last year," said Trulli. "And then it's about gaining and using experience. But what's really important is that this team has extraordinary potential.

"This year, unfortunately, we didn't really understand the tyres at the beginning of the season."

Trulli, however, is pleased with the development the team have delivered in recent races.

"In the last four or five races we have very much developed and it's also true that Bridgestone has supplied very good tyres. That was particularly true at Indianapolis and again at Magny Cours we had a very good race tyre. I think we can claim to be among the top four teams.

"We still need to improve the reliability because I have had a lot of things happen this year but, actually, never the same thing twice, so you cannot really blame the team."

The Italian driver admitted it is hard to make a prediction for next year, given that all teams will be using the same Bridgestone tyres.

"It's difficult to say because, again, we don't know what type of tyres we will be using," he said. "They will be Bridgestones of course, because next year F1 has a single tyre supplier, but we don't know the specifications yet."