12/06/2002

Allan McNish reflects on Canada

Well after saying that I thought we'd be strong in Canada I've given up making predictions!

From the start of the weekend we had similar problems to those we experienced at Imola. We basically couldn't find a set-up and balance that made the car work well on the kerbs and that's important in terms of getting a lap time out of the car at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

People ask what the problem is but we have not found the exact cause. We still have to work on a few potential solutions and evaluate the results in testing.

It didn't help my cause when I lost the second session of free practice on Friday with an oil leak. Apart from losing out on the actual track time it means that you have to do your tyre comparisons on Saturday morning and you lose the chance to run new tyres in the race.

We actually chose split strategies. It's a close call between a one-stop and a two-stop race and Mika chose to start on the softer Michelin tyre and go for two stops. We had only qualified 18th and 20th however and I thought it was difficult to predict the traffic situation and so elected to go with one stop.

I had a problem at the pit stop when the electronics did not work properly and I couldn't get first gear. To be honest my car suffered electronics problems for most of the race. The traction control was only working intermittently and I think that was a factor when I spun at Turn 4. I was left sitting there unable to get a gear and my only option was to switch off.

I enjoyed seeing Montreal although we actually flew into Toronto on the Tuesday before the race to visit a Toyota plant and see some of the car models they have in North America including the Toyota Matrix - designed and built in Canada exclusively for the North American market.

After that we had a little get together in the Museum des Beaux Arts in Montreal with some Lexus and Toyota dealers and hosted a couple of informal meetings with national Canadian journalists. It's interesting to see the different nationalities - all professional but with the different characters very noticeable.

It was a big sporting weekend outside the Grand Prix and as a Scot I probably shouldn't admit to this but I actually watched the England - Argentina game on Friday morning!

I wasn't too bothered about the Lewis-Tyson fight. At 1.65m and 58 kilos I'm not really into heavyweight boxing. I can't really see too much point in a sport where the loser ends up senseless on the floor. If you lose a fight after you've trained for three months though it must be pretty frustrating. A bit like flying to Canada hoping to go well and then ending up disappointed. I must confess I left the circuit quite early on Sunday. I was a bit grumpy.

I do sometimes get a little bit down when things don't go so well but it only ever lasts a day or two and then you focus on the next race. Mika and Ryan Briscoe are testing at Jerez this week and I'm going down to Le Mans on Friday to see how a couple of old team-mates get on.

Nurburgring is next on the F1 schedule and no I'm not making a prediction! The good thing is that it's just down the road from the factory so our guys won't have too far to go home this time!