Justin Hynes meets Irishman Richard Cregan, Toyota's general manager of Formula One operations since the start of their foray in this technologically advanced sport
Melbourne in March and a small moment of truth. Two years after announcing that it was bowing out of rallying as world champions and two years on from withdrawing from a Le Mans programme, Toyota is pulling its personnel off the grid as the last few seconds tick away towards the start of the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. This is the moment when two years of development, redevelopment, nagging doubt and hopeful trepidation, are about to be swept away and some answers finally found.
Can they play in the world's costliest, most technologically advanced sport?
Their drivers, Mika Salo and Allan McNish, have qualified 14th and 16th - no disgrace. They have Jaguar, Arrows and Minardi behind them, teams with vastly more experience. They are confident they have a package that can give them a finish. The question is, where?
The answers come all too rapidly. The lights go out and as Ralf Schumacher brakes into turn one, Rubens Barrichello nudges too close to the German and climbs aboard the Williams and becomes airborne. Behind them chaos ensues.
Half the grid is caught up in the decimation. But weaving through the smoke and debris is Mika Salo.
He emerges in the top 10, and as the race goes on and the Toyota team watches nervously from their garage at the end of pit lane, they can scarcely believe their eyes. Salo is sixth with a handful of laps to go.
Surely a point on their debut is too much to ask. An impossible dream.
It almost is. A couple of laps from the chequered flag and Salo has a moment, spinning the car through a corner. He regains control and luckily holds position. A country mile ahead, Michael Schumacher has won the race.
A minute later and Salo is crossing the line, taking with him a crucial, precious point for his team. For Toyota it is tantamount to winning. They have arrived.
Richard Cregan, the Irishman who has carried the title of general manager of F1 operations since the start of the company's foray in F1, can laugh about the nerves of that day now, 14 races on, as the dog days of the 2002 season close in, but at the time it was the culmination of all his and his team's efforts.
"We finished in rallying by winning the world championship and then pulled out. We went to Le Mans, had success and nearly a win in the second year and then our first race in F1 was a point and it was just like 'well, we're on the road again, we're up and running, we are going to conquer this'.
"Now we came down with a bang some races later, which was always going to happen. But at that particular moment you can't help but think: 'Jesus, this is not as hard as we thought it would be'. Obviously reality hits you later on..."
Reality bit on the sport's return to Europe. Salo notched up another incredible point in Brazil, but thereafter it was a struggle. Qualification was difficult, with Salo and McNish drifting aimlessly through the torpid waters of the grid's nether stretches. Races were a case of taking solace from finishing, of admiring the strength and power of their engine and wincing at the aerodynamic deficiencies of their car.
Many questioned the company's decision to start from the ground up, building both chassis and engine where other manufacturers had involved themselves with established racing teams in an engine supply category, but Cregan knows that one day the top of the hill will be climbed, the stone secured.
"How we looked at it from Cologne (Toyota Motorsport's HQ) and the advice we gave was that Toyota is looked on as a manufacturer of cars," he says. "We felt that if Toyota wanted to go into Formula One then that's the way we should do it. You go in as a team. You produce engine, transmission, the chassis, everything.
"You have complete control of the whole project. Like this year we had a strong engine and a weak chassis and therefore because we built both we don't have the problem of one crowd blaming the other. We know what the problem is and we have to get on and sort it.
"On the other hand you have a situation where the complete car is, or will be, a success. And that for us is the only way. You control the concept. And now that we have almost finished our first season, I think we were totally justified in that decision. Absolutely."
At the start though, it was viewed as madness. Last year the team were not granted access to the Formula One paddock, having to make do with learning how the system worked by peering in from beyond the fences that shield the ivory towers of the F1 paddock from the masses.
It was like being a new boy at boarding school - excluded from the gang, laughed at for their pretensions and aspirations. Cregan has mixed feelings about the criticism his team received.
"It was bound to happen," he admits. "I think that Formula One is this exclusive club, the long-term members don't really like to see the membership change that often. Maybe they don't feel that they're controlling who's coming in and who's going out.
"I think the other thing is that Toyota has been successful in everything we've done and they know that we're going to be successful, that we're going to attract good people.
"They know that we're going to have the budget to do a good job and I think they are worried."
He admits also that his own team were a little wide-eyed and innocent: "I think there was an element of naivety. I don't think it's possible to be prepared for how steep the learning curve is.
"The thing that really caught me personally was how quick the season moves. If you're not prepared before you start, it's very difficult to catch up. And one of the things we've realised this year is that our reaction time between races is just not quick enough. Not so much in development terms, it's actually: you race this weekend, you find a problem on the car and you find a potential solution for it.
"We've also recognised that we've got a huge amount of work to do and maybe more than we originally thought."
Next year he believes is crucial for the team. "The second year will be a lot more difficult," he says. "I think, for us, the honeymoon is over in F1. Everybody in the paddock will expect more from us. Japan will put more pressure on us. Next year will be a lot tougher and the one thing I hope for is that we retain the reliability."
As for pressure from the Japanese bosses, Cregan says: "There is no question about that. They're putting a lot of money into it. Toyota is one of the top three manufacturers in the world and they want a return. We're looking at it realistically though. You can't go into F1 and just expect success in three years time."
Pressure from Japan was vividly illustrated in Belgium this year. At a media dinner hosted by the team in Spa's famous Casino, the manufacturer bravely announced that 2004 would see something truly special from Toyota in Formula One. The manufacturer had publicly told the team that success must come quickly.
After two years of intense pressure to bring Toyota to F1, Cregan now realises that effort was just the start. From here it only deepens as the "good enough to get on the grid" philosophy is abandoned and replaced by questions as to why winning is so elusive.
The Irishman, who still jets home from Cologne every two weeks to touch base, is relishing the prospect of finding answers to those questions.
"I've enjoyed this year hugely," he grins. "I started off the year with a little apprehension of how it would go and I think once we saw that things were going okay I started to enjoy it. I started to enjoy the challenge.
"The other thing I enjoyed was seeing that the strategy we set up was working, the strategy of how we put the team together. Also recognising the issues we had to work on.
"I've learned an immense amount. I never believed I would learn as much about motor sport as I've learned this year and I really can't wait for next year. Next year for me is full attack. Now we're on it. We've done our learning year but we still have to learn. We have a lot of ideas and some experience under our belt and next year is going to be a completely different on another level.
"We really want to get there. The top six is what we'd be aiming for and try and get up on the podium - even if we have to get up when everybody else has gone home."