By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

OrangeArrows team boss Tom Walkinshaw has been quick to defend his teams competitiveness at the Australian Grand Prix, despite neither car making it off the starting grid. The Scot believes that his team can regularly qualify in the top 12, and from there race realistically for points finishes. "We have proved in the past what we can do that when we had a competitive engine," Tom Walkinshaw has been quoted as saying by Formula1.com. "The Cosworth gives us an excellent chance to show what we can do compared to the rest of the grid and Jaguar have got to be our bench mark.

"Mike Coughlan has done a great job with the car. It looks super and it looks quick. We would have preferred to have done a little bit more testing but our priority was to do a super job with the car design so we were late getting it out.

"We need a bit more mileage to get the reliability the way we want it but we have the speed. If we get the car on the podium then we will be pleased, but the first thing is to start scoring points and we can do that by making sure we are qualifying in the top dozen all the time.

"We weren't that far away in Melbourne and we haven't got many miles on the machine. History shows if you start in the top 12 you are in the hunt for points. I think we are in a reasonable position to do that.

"The full picture hasn't come out yet, we've only had one race but Sauber and Renault look quick. I expect it will ebb and flow between the group of us. It's going to be tough but we could have good fun with those guys this year."

Tom also revealed the reasons for the teams fall in form throughout the latter half of 2001. The team stopped developing the A22 and moved forward to working on the A23, the hope being that the re-focus will reap rewards in 2002.

"We kept our heads down all the way through last year, planned what we wanted to do and stopped developing the old car early," he explained.

"We paid the price last year for doing it because the season got less competitive as the season went on but that enabled us to put enormous amount of effort into this year's car.

"Heinz (-Harald Frentzen) brings a new dimension because we have a top flight number one, a driver who is mega quick, and that will bring Enrique on because he is very quick also.

"The result in Melbourne was far from what we were hoping for but the general mood in the team heading into the season is bouncy.

"The guys all know we've a chance of getting a good result this year. If you've got the thing quick enough in the beginning you'll be able to develop the reliability into it...."