John Howett: "Over the first five races... we have had some positive race results."
Toyota president John Howett has said that in his view the Panasonic Toyota Racing team has had an 'encouraging' start to the 2008 FIA F1 World Championship season.
To date the Cologne-based outfit has scored 9 points - all thanks to Jarno Trulli - and the squad currently sits in sixth place in the manufacturers', equal on points with Renault.
While the event in Turkey last weekend wasn't so good, and Trulli and Timo Glock only finished 10th and 13th, Howett believes things are on the up and that the main reason they are doing well is because the TF108 is simply superior to its predecessor.
"Our results this season are an improvement on 2007 because the car is basically better, there is no question about that," he confirmed.
"The ideal operating window on the TF107 was small and getting the car set-up for optimum performance was difficult at a lot of tracks last year. When we got it set-up in that zone we looked pretty good, better than our results at the end of the season suggested in fact.
"This year's car has a much wider operating window and this helps the drivers and the engineers to get the most out of it. oth drivers saw this immediately at the Bahrain test, when they felt the car was more stable and drivable.
"All-in-all the start to the season has been quite encouraging. Over the first five races the car has been relatively quick, and we have had some positive race results.
"Jarno is very positive about the baseline of the TF108 while Timo has shown a lot of flashes of high performance and future potential and it is obvious he is becoming more relaxed with the car as the season progresses.
"However in Turkey we didn't get the result we expected and now we have to fight to find more performance from the car."
Pressed on if he thinks Toyota will be able to close the gap to Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and BMW Sauber, he added that in his view the entire midfield pack, namely them, Red Bull Racing, Renault and Williams, is inching closer race by race.
"I think in Formula 1 almost everyone has very similar resources and we are all pushing hard, so closing the gap is always going to be difficult, there's no denying that," he continued.
"Our goal this year is to get to a higher level within the second pack and hopefully latch on to the top three teams. I actually believe the middle pack is closing up towards Ferrari, McLaren and BMW, although it is not easy. But this is the pleasure of the remorseless challenge of Formula One."
As for the sport in general, Howett reckons it is 'generally in very good shape - scandals excluded'.
"People have a tendency to talk down F1 but we have one of the strongest and most popular sports in the world and I think it is more competitive now than it has been for a long while. If you look at the gap between teams, it is very close this year and that is something Formula 1 should be happy about.
"Obviously the loss of Super Aguri was a shame but in general Formula 1 is commercially very strong; we have some of the biggest corporations in the world involved and the global reach is greater than all other sporting events, with the exception of quadrennial events such as World Cup football and the Olympics. F1 may not be perfect, it certainly can be improved, but it has plenty of reasons to be positive," he concluded.
