Pitstop: Toyota after a respectable debut

By BOB PEARCE

Toyota will have a great deal on the line when its Formula One cars make their racing debut at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Japanese manufacturer has chosen to enter its own team, rather than supplying the engines only like many of its competitors.

Toyota had the option of racing last season, but opted to pay a substantial fee to gain more time to develop its car.

Testing has brought mixed results and nobody is expecting miracles. But Toyota will want a respectable debut before the hundreds of guests it is bringing to Melbourne. The company is a major player in the Australian and New Zealand markets and a lot of money is at stake.

Team boss Ove Andersson, who scored successes for Toyota in rallying, has opted for a Finn and a Scot to pilot his cars. Mika Salo is a 35-year-old with 92 Grand Prix starts and a best finish of second when filling in at Ferrari, after driving for five other teams.

Allan McNish is three years younger, but will be making his Formula One debut after years of racing in other classes.

Toyota has extensive experience in a range of circuit racing and a budget big enough to fund continuing development. By the time of the final round at Suzuka on October 13 they will expect to be pushing some of the longer-established teams.

One Kiwi who will be watching Toyota's performance with special interest is Scott Dixon.

The 21-year-old Aucklander drives a Toyota-powered Champ Car and is spoken of as a potential driver for the Formula One team.

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If the racing becomes a bit dull at Melbourne on Sunday, here are some facts and figures to pass the time between pitstops.

The calculations come from the leading British motorsport magazine, Autosport: -

* Formula One cars at a maximum speed of 360 km/h will have engines revving typically to 18,000 rpm. In just one second the engine goes through 300 revolutions and 1500 ignitions while the pistons cover a total of 25m in their oscillations.

In that same second the car itself covers 100m and the wheels turn 50 times. More than 150,000 engine and data measurements are made.

* Drivers undergo incredible punishment at the wheel of a Formula One car, where it can reach 50 deg C during a race.

The driver's heartbeat can exceed 190 beats a minute and they can burn up to 600 calories and 1.5 litres of body fluid and two kilograms of weight over a full race distance.

* Each Formula One team on average gets through 900 tyres, 100 sets of brake discs and pads, 15 suspension sets, 12 sets of pedals, 16 gearboxes, 1000 gear ratios, 15 rear and front wings, 10 driver's seats, 40 exhaust systems and seven monocoques during each season. Not to mention over 100 engines ...

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The Aussies are making the most of their own Formula One moment of history.

No one expects the Minardi team to challenge the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, but they are developing a real Ocker pedigree.

The team is owned by aviation mogul Paul Stoddart, who comes from the Melbourne suburb of Coburg, and their new driver is Mark Webber, a fellow Australian who made his mark in Formula 3000.

When the 25-year-old Webber makes his Formula One debut at Albert Park on Sunday he will be the first Australian to drive an Australian-owned car in motor racing's premier competition since triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham more than 30 years ago.

The Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, was on hand to welcome the Minardi team to Melbourne as they flew in on one of Stoddart's own jets. If an Australian can win an Olympic medal by being the last man standing, how about a Grand Prix?

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The most obvious change this year for Kiwis living their Formula One season vicariously through television will be the absence of motormouth Murray Walker from the commentary team, except for occasional guest spots.

Teamed with former racer Derek Brundle on the ITV feed will be James Allen, who deputised for Walker on several occasions last year as the veteran wound down his 50-year career.

Allen comes across as well-informed but so far without the passion which made up for Walker's lapses.

Television One is expected to provide live cover of all but the Malaysian and Japanese GPs, which would conflict with evening programming presumably these days devoted to Hobbs' choice.

Incidentally Television New Zealand always has the inside running over satellite channels when Formula One rights are on offer.

Contracts between the teams and the owners of Formula One, effectively the German media giant Kirch, guarantee that the sport will be on free-to-air stations until 2007.

This guarantees sponsors an enormous audience estimated at a cumulative annual figure of 50 billion and allows teams to attract sponsorship based on that figure.

The ongoing row between the manufacturers involved in the sport and Kirch is over the continuation of that arrangement in the face of Kirch's financial difficulties and its satellite TV interests.

Somewhere Rupert Murdoch is hovering.

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Michael Schumacher is shooting for his third successive Melbourne victory at the Australian Grand Prix - and according to local statisticians he has a 31.1 per cent chance of achieving it.

Experts at the city's Swinburne University say the Ferrari driver has a better than 60 per cent chance of finishing in the top three on Sunday and a 76 per cent chance of a top-six finish. The next best computer prediction for a win is David Coulthard of McLaren at 14.5 per cent. He won in Melbourne in 1997 and was second in 1998.

The 1999 race was won by Eddie Irvine, then driving for Ferrari. He now pilots a Jaguar and has dropped down the rankings.

The mathematicians ran the Australian GP more than 20,000 times in computer simulations, representing more than 1.16 million laps and more than 6.15 million kilometres around the Albert Park circuit.