McNish: You're only as good as your car in F1.

Allan McNish has sent out a warning to drivers entering Formula 1 to be prepared to have to battle at the back end of the grid before making their way up the pecking order, after he finally got his big break in the top flight more than a decade on from first getting a taste of F1 power.

Having shone in both British F3 and International F3000 (now GP2), the Scot was widely tipped for international greatness, only for his career to take an altogether different path when opportunities in the top flight failed to materialise, and sportscar teams came knocking.

Somewhat ironically, it was McNish's success in this field - or more precisely his landmark victory for Porsche in the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours on the 50th anniversary of the Bavarian marque's maiden motorsport triumph - that would re-light his grand prix ambitions as he finally got his big break with the new Toyota outfit in 2002.

"Getting to F1 is like just one Premiership game," he explained. "It's the very peak, and only 22 drivers ever reach that level at one time.

"It was my philosophy that anything outside of single-seaters was the end of my career, but fate had it that Porsche led to Toyota and then to Formula 1. In a very bizarre way it took me back to where I had wanted to be in the first place.

"Ultimately you're only as good as the product that's underneath you, though. In the second race of my F1 career in Malaysia I was running sixth until my final pit-stop, having started 18th. Unfortunately my team-mate Mika Salo had made an unscheduled pit-stop ten seconds earlier, and because they had been waiting for me they put my new tyres onto Mika's car and his old tryes onto mine!"

It was an unfortunate episode, but one that would sum up much of McNish's season, as he gamely fought on only to be struck by bad luck on more than one occasion when looking good for a points-paying finish. There was, though, the 39-year-old admits, one memory from the year that sticks vividly in his mind, when he outpaced a certain Michael Schumacher and countryman David Coulthard in Monaco free practice...

"I ended up P2 to [current Toyota star] Jarno Trulli," he recalled, "which I've never forgiven him for! It was the highest position Toyota ever got to throughout the year."

Now a seasoned and highly successful sportscar veteran with Audi, McNish has recently been promoted to the role of President of the Scottish Racing Drivers' Club, replacing no less a man than Sir Jackie Stewart and following in the wheeltracks of racing hero Jim Clark. It is an organisation that has produced drivers who have gone on to conquer the worlds of Formula 1, the IndyCar Series, Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans 24 Hours, Indy 500, F3 Euroseries and British Touring Car Championship, and a task the Dumfries-born ace insists it is a pleasure to have been entrusted with.

"I was very surprised and also very honoured - considering the other candidates - that [Stewart] thought I was the right person to take the club forward in that mantle," he mused.

"We've had more talent out of that little club than perhaps we should have had. Jackie's shoes are very large shoes to fill, but I certainly hope over the forthcoming years I will be able to do something worthwhile."