Motorsport

GP Preview

Jonathan Gill previews the next Formula 1 Grand Prix at Monza, Italy on Sunday 9th September

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Jonathan Gill

07th September 2007

While all eyes will be firmly focused on the fight for the world championship, spare a thought for the tail-end Spyker outfit. The impoverished team had to delay the introduction of its uprated Ferrari-powered chassis when the new car failed an FIA crash test in the run-up to last month’s race in Turkey.

But chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne (pictured) is confident the B-specification contender will debut this weekend. “It was very disappointing to delay the launch and not have the planned performance increase. We have now been able to test the car at the pre-Italian Grand Prix trial at Monza last week, which should allow us to be in better shape,” he said.

Spyker was thrilled to beat one of the factory Hondas in Hungary, yet Gascoyne pointed out: “We are trying to downplay expectations slightly, but it is a reasonable step forward. If you could just suddenly chuck a car into the midfield, everybody would be doing it. We may well still qualify on the back row. This time next year, though, judge us by where we are.”