`We have to stay realistic and focused`
Tiago Monteiro is in positive mood ahead of the competitive racing debut of Midland F1 Racing at this weekend`s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Monteiro, 29, became the first Portuguese driver to finish on a Formula One podium when he claimed third place for Jordan in last year`s farcical United States Grand Prix and finished all but one of the 19 races in his rookie season.

MF1 are essentially a re-branded Jordan team as Russian-born billionaire Alex Shnaider had already taken ownership in late 2004, but Monteiro has already seen dramatic changes which he believes will help the development of the new operation.

"The first race is always interesting as it`s such an unknown, but everyone in the team is really keen and motivated," said Monteiro. "After a long winter of testing, it`s exciting to be back in action. We did way more testing than last year and that can only help us down the road, so overall I think we did an excellent job of getting ready this winter."

But despite his positive outlook, Monteiro, who finished 16th in last year`s drivers` championship with seven points, is not expecting instant success for the Silverstone-based team.


"We have to stay realistic and focused on moving in the right direction, but at least everything is going in the right direction," he added.

His Dutch team-mate Christijan Albers has a more difficult task than Monteiro as he has to adjust to an all-new team following his move from Minardi.

But former DTM star Albers, 26, is confident in the team`s ability to deliver good results, and has refuted claims that the team will be regularly fighting for scraps at the back of the pack.

"The most important thing is that everybody is motivated and everybody is pushing really hard to achieve our goals - which is to crack the top eight and score points whenever we can," Albers said. "Based on what I`ve seen so far, it`s a reasonable goal, but we have to keep working really hard for that. The car may be quite new, but we keep finding performance improvements and it keeps getting faster all the time."

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