Will Ralf be out of F1 after 2007?

(GMM) He will start Sunday's Spanish grand prix an embarrassing seventeenth on the grid, but Ralf Schumacher is refusing to give up on his pre-season goal of delivering Toyota's first ever race win in 2007.

The German has taken a recent walloping in the press for his uncompetitive start to the season, but 31-year-old Schumacher said in Barcelona that the TF107 is still capable of racing to the top step of the podium.

"We are only at the fourth race," Ralf told reporters at the Circuit de Catalunya, "and I am not losing faith."

With teammate Jarno Trulli still showing him up at grands prix, however – the Italian is sixth on the Spanish GP grid – Schumacher is facing the real possibility of finding nowhere to go in 2008.

But he said: "If we don't improve I have no concerns that it will affect where I might be next season.

"I am confident I will have a race seat somewhere, and we will let you know when the time comes."