Feature: Toyota Keep Rivals Guessing

Toyota say they expect neither points nor prizes from their debut season in Formula One, looking instead for experience and respect. But some people are sure to be hedging their bets until they see the evidence for themselves when the action starts in Melbourne on March 3rd.

The Toyota engine has shown itself to be strong and reliable in extensive pre-season testing and some media reports have suggested it is producing as much power as some of the established top-tier teams. The new car, unveiled last month, is also clearly a different beast to the slow and outdated prototype wheeled out around the world for development work last year.

"Toyota could be the surprise of the year," Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug, McLaren's engine partner, told Britain's Autosport magazine this month. "There are several teams that have invested hugely and wisely. Among them are Toyota."

But team boss Ove Andersson foresees plenty of struggles ahead. "To think that we are going to be a success is like saying that when we start school we are the same as a student who has been there for 15 years," he said recently.

Toyota's situation still makes an interesting comparison to Jaguar, a team expected to go considerably faster in 2002 and who this month unveiled their new car only to discover a big problem with the front wing.

Within a few weeks, the tables have been turned. Toyota are no longer written off as contenders while a question mark hangs over Jaguar's ability to move up the grid as they wrestle with the wind tunnel data.

Absolute Reality

Toyota technical director Gustav Brunner, who has more than two decades of experience in Formula One, denies the new boys are trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes.

"It is absolute reality," Brunner told Reuters at a recent test session in Barcelona when asked whether the world's third largest carmaker really expected to be dicing with the backmarkers rather than going for points.

"Don't expect too much to start with. It is for us a year of learning and our target is really to take part in every race, qualify reasonably. But we are under no illusions. Results are very difficult to start with. For sure we don't have a race-winning car and we are not a race-winning team now."

The team are the first genuine newcomers to enter from scratch since Stewart - subsequently bought out by Ford and renamed Jaguar - made their debut in 1997, and experience is what they lack most.

But the team have been spending heavily, with an annual budget estimated by F1 Racing magazine recently at some $142.2 million, as they prepare to fight head-to-head with domestic carmaker rivals Honda.

They undertook a three-day Grand Prix simulation at Austria's A1 Ring last year to work through full practice, qualifying and race distance with two cars. "This is just part of our training programme," said Brunner. "To simulate a Grand Prix weekend is not so easy. You have to get there with the trucks, build up the garage, respect the times of free practice and qualifying.

"It is also good training for the mechanics because we simulated the warm-up, with only a few hours to change engines, gearbox and all those things on more than one car. We did the whole lot, it's all new for us."

Five-Year Plan

Brunner, who has worked for a range of teams including ATS, Arrows, Ferrari, Zakspeed, Leyton House and most recently Minardi, expects big things down the line once the team becomes more settled however.

"We want to be on top in five years," he said. "But what I mean to be on top is to be competitive, to run at the top. Winning is another thing with a lot of other factors.

"We want to make points next year, not this year, and reach the podium for the first time in two years' time.

"In the fifth season we want to be running with the front guys. This is realistic but very hard to achieve."

The Austrian, knowing that he has the chance of his life to work for a winning team, was adamant that Toyota could not realistically hope for much this year.

"We always dream and want more but realistically Formula One is a very high level technically and we are a new team and have to learn," he said. "We have to start at the bottom but Toyota is a big company and they will not stay at the bottom for a long time."