Ralf 'happy' with first taste of Toyota.

New Toyota recruit Ralf Schumacher has pronounced himself impressed and happy with what he has found at the Cologne-based team, following his first test in a TF104B at Barcelona this week.

The German, who left the rarefied air of Williams to link up with Jarno Trulli at Formula One's current under-achiever, completed two days of running at the Circuit de Catalunya, and regularly featured towards the top of the timesheets in conjunction with his new team-mate and test driver Ricardo Zonta. Aware of Toyota's midfield pedigree, Schumacher admitted to being pleasantly surprised on his first acquaintance with the car.

"I spent my two days learning about the team and getting myself used to the 2004-spec car, and I'm relatively happy with the way it went," he reported, "I fitted into the car okay, the feeling was good and I put in a reasonable lap time on the first day.

"I'm pleasantly surprised, because the package is a lot better than I expected. The car felt very well balanced and easy to handle. There is certainly some work to do, but I'm more than happy with what I've seen so far.

"We got through quite a lot of work and it was interesting to try a few things on the car. Thursday was another good day, and we were able to get started on tyre testing, before we move to Jerez next week to start properly testing the car in preparation for next season."

Schumacher also revealed that he had been made to feel at home in the Toyota set-up.

"My reception from the whole Toyota team has been great, and it feels like I've already been here for a while," he said, "The people here have helped me and given me a lot of support, so it's been easy to fit in - and I've been particularly impressed by the working method within the team."

New team-mate Trulli, who joined the squad from Renault late in the 2004 season, also enjoyed a successful test, despite some physical discomfort in the cockpit.

"I spent the week working on a variety of small parts in preparation for 2005, and we've also put a lot of mileage on the engine in preparation for the new regulations next year," he revealed, "That went well and I put in around 90 laps on two of the days. In addition, we've started preliminary work on the new tyres, which will have to last for the entire race distance next season.

"I've had a slight problem with my seat position, which puts a bit of stress on my neck, but it's something that I'll have to bear, as it will only be solved when we start running in the new car. Apart from that, we've had no particular problems except for the odd stoppage - but winter testing is meant to be like that."