During one of several lulls in testing at Valencia, Toyota star, Ralf Schumacher, sat down to talk exclusively to Pitpass.

After a 'difficult' time at WilliamsF1, particularly when partnered by Juan Pablo Montoya, the German seems far more relaxed, contented even, at his 'new home'.

"Within Toyota we concentrate on our job and basically try to enjoy what we are doing at the same time," he responds, "Whereas with other teams some people seem to concentrate on making up stories about people, for what ever reason, and disturbing things rather than putting them right. There is a different philosophy in those teams, and that is one of the major reasons why I am so happy that I changed."

So it would be fair to say that he's happy at Toyota; "Yes it's a very nice team to work with," he laughs.

Toyota test drivers, Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis, have both raced, indeed the Frenchman has a Grand Prix victory to his credit, would Ralf, at the end of his race career, consider remaining in F1 as a test driver?

"Only a test driver?" he replies. "It depends on the state of your career. If you really like to drive a Formula One car but you come to the stage, or age, where you are not competitive enough anymore, and that might be only one or two tenths of a second, then it might be an option. But honestly, I don't know... I really don't know, it's difficult.

"It's a different life," he says of the test driver's role, "but for us (the team) it's a very important life. It's not much appreciated by those on the outside, but as well as test drivers we all, at the end of the day, like the competition, we like to race."

In his time, Ralf has suffered, as have many sportsmen and women, press intrusion into his private life, we asked him how he copes.

"Well luckily I am not in England," he replies, smiling. "It seems to be a bit of a tough one to be in England but no it's not such a problem.

"With work sometimes if I have the time it's not a problem, then sometimes you're really in a hurry and it's difficult but apart from that it's OK.

"I must say it was a lot more difficult in previous years when I used to be in another team, but now it's a lot easier."

Does he feel more 'protected' at Toyota?

"Not so much more protected," he says, "it's simply that everybody is much more straightforward, there are not so many rumours around, stuff like that. That makes life a lot more easier."