Mika in for Mika as Toyota gear up for 2002

Just as one Mika packs his bags for a year off, another is gearing up for a Formula One comeback after a season out.

McLaren's two times champion Mika Hakkinen left Suzuka on Sunday, perhaps never to return, at the end of a non-vintage year for the Finn.

On Monday, 34-year-old compatriot Mika Salo starts testing at the Japanese circuit, planning his own return in 2002 with Toyota, the new kids on the grid.

Nobody expects him or his team to win races or even challenge for points in their debut year but their arrival is not being taken lightly.

The world's third largest carmaker means business and, at a time when some of the smaller teams are feeling the pinch in a troubled global economy, has a massive war chest.

Some media reports have spoken of a 2002 budget, for a team that is building both engines and chassis at its German headquarters near Cologne, of a thumping $260 million.

They have been testing all year, having postponed their entry by a season, to build up knowledge of unfamiliar circuits.

And they can continue, while others are banned from the track from last Monday until the New Year, up to November 15 under an agreement reached with team principals at Monza last month.

Everything will be new to Toyota next year, from pitstops to basics such as working in cramped conditions at the tail end of the pit lane.

BATTLE LINES

Toyota's presence in Formula One next season will both ratchet up competition and the Japanese involvement in Formula One, with driver Takuma Sato making his entry with Jordan.

Bridgestone already provide half the teams with tyres -- although Toyota will be using Michelin -- while Honda supply engines to both British American Racing and Jordan.

The battle lines will be redefined as Formula One, assuming no teams go bust before the off next March, starts a new season with a full grid of 12 teams for the first time since 1997.

Jordan and BAR have been battling each other for supremacy this season, neither wanting the other to take a favoured position with Honda.

Next year both will have to make sure they beat arch-rivals Toyota as well.

The two already have very different strategies, Honda abandoning in 1999 advanced plans to enter their own team while Toyota have dismissed the possibility of merely supplying engines to others.

"Being engine supplier to a famous team is not thought to give the right return on investment and the car would not be a Toyota," said team boss Ove Andersson at the team's first car launch in March.

Honda may also be intending to focus more on Formula One after announcing last week that they would be quitting CART, where they have also been competing against Toyota, at the end of 2002.

Beating their big rivals should not be difficult for Honda at first, with Toyota stressing it will be a learning year with qualification the primary aim.

But Honda also need to watch rivals such as BMW and Mercedes, already threatening to pull away with more powerful engines next year.

LONG HAUL

BMW have tested their new engine, which is expected to offer more power than the already impressive 2001 model, while Renault have made big strides this season with their power plant.

Toyota are in for the long haul and have their sights on beating Honda, who have provided championship winning engines in the past, to the title as a constructor.

"It will take some years to learn, some years to get experience," Andersson told Reuters earlier this year.

"It will take several years to be able to be somewhat competitive.

"The target we must have for next year is to learn. We have to understand all the circuits, everything that is involved in doing Formula One.

"We have to try and become a team that is respected within Formula One."

Allan McNish is in line to be Salo's team mate and, if he secures the drive as expected, the Scot will join at least two new faces on the 2002 grid.

Sato, the newly-crowned British Formula Three champion and a Honda protege, represents Japan's best hope yet of producing a grand prix winner.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, still just 20 years old, arrives at Sauber as a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen -- who has moved to fill Hakkinen's shoes at McLaren.