Trulli 'satisfied' with his 2008 start

Although Jarno Trulli concedes Toyota aren't as close to BMW as they had hoped to be, the Italian is nonetheless happy with his start to the new season.

Trulli has netted eight points in the first three races of the season, which is the same number of points he bagged the entire campaign last year.

Asked to judge his start to the season, the Toyota driver said: "I would say satisfying and exactly where we wanted to be so far."

However, having said that he also concedes that the Cologne team had hoped to be a bit closer to BMW's pace.

"We must admit at the moment that Ferrari, McLaren and BMW are ahead. I expected us to be closer to BMW, but Bahrain for us was probably not the best track," he said.

"On twisty tracks I think we can be closer, because on long straights we need to drop our car drag. The car balance and grip is not too bad, but still we have some work to do to catch the top teams up."

And that work begins next week in Barcelona where Toyota will take part in a three-day test. "It will be all down to the next development work," the Italian told Autosport.

"We have got a good base to start with, and now the future results will be down to how well we can develop our car.

"From the start of the European races we start the phase of development, so we will see."