Ever since the announcement, in early August, that he was to be replaced by Ricardo Zonta (read that as dumped), and subsequently Jarno Trulli, little has been heard of Cristiano da Matta.

Still looking for a Champ Car drive this season, and ahead of the Daytona 24-hours, which he will contest with actor Paul Newman, Sebastien Bourdais and Michael Brockman, the Brazilian finally spoke out.

"I obviously had a hard time," he told Speed. "My first year was more or less what I expected from the team, from the car and from myself," he continued, "finishing the championship where I finished, qualifying where I qualified, and the race results I had were pretty much what I expected.

"What never happened was the step forward that I expected the team to make between 2003 and 2004," he admitted. "We never made this step forward. We actually went backwards a little bit. So the second season was very difficult.

"It was a difficult season from the word 'go'. Since the first time we put the car on the racetrack, it was slow and we could never make it faster.

"There were a lot of things going on inside the team," he revealed. "It looks like we were focusing on the wrong things, because we never made the car any quicker the whole season long. If you look at the results from the beginning to the end, they are all the same type of results. There was no improvement."

Reflecting on his foray into F1, a venture which promised so much, but delivered so little, he said: "It was a positive experience in some areas, and in some other areas was a very difficult experience.

"But, as a race driver, I feel like I improved myself in the two years I was there. I got to learn a different series. At the end of the day, for my career, I think it was good.

"That doesn't mean that it was fun, but it was good."