Talk that a proposed B-car will turn Spyker's season around has been played down by the Dutch team's chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne.

Talking about the heavily revised car, the Englishman says: "It will be a step forward, but not as much as we need to be truly competitive; it is more part of the aero development that is ongoing into 2008.

"I think we have to be realistic about it," he continues, "although Spyker and new management have come on board, where we are at the moment is a result of the previous lack of investment. Spyker is putting all those things right, but we won't see the improvements on the race track for nine months to a year. In the meantime, we have to do a professional job with the package we have at the moment and look to next year.

"This should be a move forward but we shouldn't pin our hopes too much on suddenly moving up the grid and being competitive," he admits, "but we will continue evolving until the end of the year. I'm sure that by then we'll be in a more competitive position than we are now."

Looking ahead to this weekend's race, Gascoyne reveals that there will be some updates to the F8-VII but nothing spectacular.

"There are no major updates, but there will be some minor aero parts that we will put on the car to help provide the high levels of downforce required for this circuit. Some of the parts are specifically for Monaco but some will be carried forward as part of our ongoing process of development."