Former Renault and Toyota technical director Mike Gascoyne said on Wednesday it would take a while before Spyker can benefit fully from his arrival at the Silverstone-based Formula One team.

"I'll be in every design meeting and I'll be making all the key design decisions," the Briton said on his first day as chief technical officer.

"But the new car is already pretty much finished as of November 1, so I think what we can do for the start of 2007 is fairly limited," he told the Spyker Web site.

"The engine deal was finalised quite late, and I'm coming in even later, so you can't expect that we'll have gone anywhere by March next year.

"I think the performance in the first race is fixed but by mid-season you can have a significant influence, and that's what I'll be looking to do," he said.

Dutch luxury sportscar maker Spyker bought the Midland team, formerly Jordan, in September and will compete in next year's championship as Spyker F1 with Ferrari engines.

Midland failed to score a point this year and ended the year 10th out of the 11 teams.

Gascoyne, who worked for Jordan before moving to the manufacturer-owned teams and becoming one of the highest paid technical directors, remained under contract to Toyota until the end of October despite leaving them in April.

"The top teams are looking to win races and win the world championship," said Gascoyne. "That's not something we can sit here and say that we can do in three years.

"We can build up into becoming a big team, but your aspirations over the next couple of years have to be different.

"Our aspirations are to start scoring points, and nick the odd podium when there's a race once or twice a year where everything gets mixed up," he said.