New kid on the F1 block

You know Formula One is hot in the country when you see Ferrari, Jaguar, McLaren and Jordan Honda merchandise rip-offs in every neighborhood tiangge. Pinoys are definitely F1-crazy these days–the absence of the Star Sports channel in Sky and Home cable networks notwithstanding. This year, it could get even hotter.

That’s because a new team is joining the race spectacle. And it’s another marque most local car owners can certainly identify with. Japanese auto giant Toyota has signed up for the world’s most prestigious–and costly–race series, and by the looks of things, the company is not going by any of the usual routes.

Unlike the rest in the current F1 grid, Toyota ambitiously built both its car’s chassis and engine, something that only one other team in F1 currently has the distinction of doing. No less than the hallowed Scuderia Ferrari, a team whose F1 heritage is as long as Formula One itself.

Officially called Panasonic Toyota Racing, the team launched its 2002 season challenger–the TF102 car–in mid-December in Cologne, Germany, where the team is based. Successor to the 2001 TF101 test car, the TF102 retains the Toyota corporate red-and-white colors, but sports new liveries, notably the logos of mega-buck sponsors AOL Time Warner and–get this–Wella hair cosmetics. Well, a sponsorship is a sponsorship, whichever way one looks at it.

Besides, according to F1 insiders, the sponsorships and Toyota’s own budget mean the team will have the fattest wallet among the boys come the first race in March in Melbourne, Australia. As reports from Auto Motor Und Sport have it, Toyota has an annual budget of $250 million. Its new factory in Cologne alone already costs $125 million. A fact that impressed even McLaren technical director Adrian Newey, who is no stranger to the F1 world. "Toyota is doing everything a little bigger and more expensive than others," he quipped.

For instance, the team’s workshop has recently been expanded to almost double its current size, and now incorporates the best equipment available, allowing Toyota to develop and build most of its stuff in-house. The team’s floor space is divided almost equally between the chassis and engine development facilities. A wind tunnel is also nearing completion. And although the racing program is based in Germany–making it the only F1 team to be so–the team has access to Toyota’s extensive R&D shops in Japan, company officials said.

With a little over two months left before the team’s baptism of high-compression combustion, the team foresees an extremely busy period for the TF102’s testing program. Toyota Motorsport President Ove Andersson–who was widely considered the architect of Toyota’s successful stint in the World Rally Championship–said the program is indeed a big task. "But we are not that much worried," he said. "We have been reasonably on schedule with whatever we’ve done until now."

Besides, the team has signed up the duo of Finn Mika Salo and Scotsman Allan McNish, who are both veteran racers. Here, Toyota’s inclination to take the track less traveled is apparent. Most teams these days hire twentysomething hotshots. Toyota opted to hire Salo–who’s been in F1 since ’95 and is regarded as truly a talent to reckon with–and 32-year old McNish, who will hold the distinction, however unenviable, of the being the oldest F1 rookie.

Salo was hired by Ferrari to sit in for the injured Michael Schumacher during the ’99 season, and almost won a race on his second gig with the team had orders not prevented him, giving way to teammate Eddie Irvine.

For his part, McNish was a former F1 test driver before switching to sports car racing. He has had an illustrious career, competing in GT championships in the US and Europe, and winning the most prestigious endurance races such as Daytona 24 Hours, American Le Mans series, and the Le Mans 24 Hours–where, by the way, he holds the lap record driving a Toyota GT.

At the media reception party in Tokyo last year, we chatted with both Salo and McNish. The duo was modest about Toyota’s prospect in F1. This, after all, is just the team’s first season. However, both drivers were also quite optimistic with regards to their team’s F1 future. "We have done a lot of testing this year, and we’re sure to get a respectable degree of reliability from the car," McNish said. "The past year had also allowed the team members to bond together," Salo added.

Andersson also said the team’s "main target for next year will be to learn, and to try to gain respect within the F1 paddock."

Needless to say, all eyes will be watching Toyota come the season-opening Australian GP.

After all, there must be something to be said in seeing the same logo on the grill of one’s daily driver and an F1 car hurtling through that first Brabham corner–or Eau Rouge or Casino Square in other circuits for that matter. Attracting pit babes is not guaranteed, though.