13/05/2002

Allan McNish reflects on Austria

Eighth and ninth places in the Austrian Grand Prix ultimately didn't reflect Panasonic Toyota Racing's potential this weekend. You can never predict what is going to happen in motor racing but two safety car periods definitely worked against us. Without that I genuinely think we could have had both cars in the points.

Basically from first thing on Saturday we concentrated on a strong race set-up for my car because the TF102 was working well at A1-Ring. The engine is strong and the braking was very good the two things that are very important in Austria so I was fairly convinced that we would be able to overtake in the race and that qualifying was not so vital. With that in mind I chose the harder of the two Michelin tyres and was expecting to be in good shape towards the end of my stints.

The first safety car was just at the point when I had started to make progress. I had just got past Giancarlo Fisichella who finished fifth at the restart but the second appearance of the safety car just a lap later was too early for us to make our pit stop. The other point is we had noticed that a two-stop strategy had been brought into play by some people and the safety cars played into their hands. They were able to stop under the safety car and we lost the advantage that we had planned for.

I like racing at A1-Ring and have always gone very well there a point I was reminded of by one of my old sportscar team-mates who called in to wish me well and shake my hand. But that said the first couple of laps were very busy and I just concentrated on keeping myself out of trouble.

Overall I was very pleased with my pace in both qualifying and race. There was only Montoya and me who chose the harder Michelin and the car felt very consistent over the whole race. I think the team is getting stronger all the time and we are able to get down to business much more quickly from the start of the weekend.

It helps to have raced at a circuit before because it's one thing to drive around on your own and another to know the little details of what can and can't be done in a race. Barcelona was the first track on which I had previously raced and this was the second. Just that little bit of experience helps to flatten out the learning curve.

Another thing that pleased me about Austria was that my mother Sheila was there to see her first Grand Prix. It was Mother's Day in Austria and my Mum accepted an invitation along with another 11 Mums to visit the race. She has been a strong influence on my career because of course she and my father had to take me all over the UK when I was karting. She saw almost all of my racing in the junior formulae too but it was her first F1 race.

My Mum is actually quite a nervous viewer. Not in case of an accident but in case the race doesn't go as well as expected and I come back grumpy! But she was very pleased and really enjoyed herself.

Takuma Sato's parents were also at the track and must have had a worrying time after his accident. I'm delighted that he seems to be okay. I really like Taku. Incidentally standing beside him in Australia I realised he's the only driver who is smaller than me!

Next stop Monaco and at least I won't have too far to go from my flat...