It's been just over two months since Michael Schumacher cruised to a fourth world championship title, but yesterday in Cologne Formula One began the countdown to the 2002 season as Toyota, holder of the F1 grid's last available 'franchise' unveiled the car that they hope will launch them on the road to glory in a sport which has been a graveyard of ambition for even the mightiest.

Three years ago British American Racing surfed into Formula One on a wave of frothy hype, claiming that with 1996 champion Jacques Villeneuve at the sharp end of their attack they could even win their first race. Sixteen races later and BAR and Villeneuve were walking away from the season finale in Suzuka without a championship point.

It's a tale of underachievement that has followed the team right up to this season when the team, despite two years of works Honda support behind them, wound up losing fifth place in the constructors' championship to upstarts Jordan, a team that had locked into Honda power at the beginning of the season.

It has been a similar story at Ford-financed Jaguar. The leaping cat debuted in 2000, trumpeting their signing of 1999 championship runner-up Eddie Irvine amid misty-eyed footage of past sports car victories. History though is unfortunately written by the winners and Eddie Irvine's single podium in Monaco 2001 is but a footnote in a tale entirely told by the Ferrari team Irvine left to join Jaguar.

Toyota though, have learned the lessons of history and in a low-key launch in Cologne yesterday, the talk was not of tilts for titles but of education, team building, conservatism.

"We are very realistic about our first year in the sport," said team president Ove Andersson. "We have started from the ground up, building both engine and chassis, and that is not an easy thing to do. The first year will be a learning year, a year in which we hope to establish a platform from which we can move in the future."

Andersson's reticence to claim anything for the new team is reflected in the car it will bring to the season opener in Melbourne on March 3rd next year. Asked if the new car, the TF102, was a significant step forward from the test car which the team had in March shown to the world's media, designer Gustav Brunner looked momentarily perplexed before explaining away the team's lack of expectations.

"There is nothing left from the old car," he said. "When I joined the team in June, we started over again and every nut and bolt is different. But while it is different, we have built it with a conservative philosophy. The idea is to finish races. The team may be all new but we wanted the car to be as normal as possible."

However, Toyota have travelled to 11 of the currently used grand prix circuits this year and at each one its test model was woefully slow, often as much as four or five seconds off the pace achieved by the current grid front runners.

Charged with clipping the edges off those bulky lap times are drivers Mika Salo and Allan McNish. Salo will be a familiar face, the journeyman Finn having been in Formula One for close on eight years.

McNish, though, will be unknown to most outside motorsport. The Scot (33) was McLaren test driver as far back as 1990 but faded from the sport as his racing in F3000 hit the rocks. Since then he has drifted in and out of the sport, most notably working as Benetton test driver in 1993 and again in 1996.

While the line-up may not set the heart racing Andersson believes the pair can get the job done for Toyota.

"There has been a lot speculation as to our driver line-up, but we have seen what an experienced pairing Mika and Allan make," said Andersson.

Salo was unimpressed by the 'just happy to be here' attitude beamingly being trotted out by his superiors. Asked how long he thought it might take for Toyota to become competitive, the Finn frowned severely. "I hope just a couple of months but that's pretty unrealistic," he grimaced.

"I'm pretty impatient, but I guess I have to be political in what I say. We need a lot more experience. We need more testing, more race simulations and running against the other cars."

Meanwhile, as Toyota keep their ambitions close, one of the men responsible for so wildly flaunting BAR's hopes three years ago resigned yesterday.

Craig Pollock, the former manager of Jacques Villeneuve and the man who brought the Canadian with him when he orchestrated the founding of BAR from the ashes of Tyrrell, stepped down as team, principal just 24 hours before the team reveals its 2002 challenger at a ceremony at team headquarters in Brackley, England.

Pollock's replacement will be announced at the launch of the BAR004 today. Pollock's move out of BAR could also spell the end of Jacques Villeneuve's involvement with the team at the end of this season.

The Canadian has been a staunch supporter of his former mentor and signed his current contract with BAR only after a personal plea from Pollock.