20 years ago, a major manufacturer decided to enter Formula One, and in its first year

it didn't enter a race, yet somehow it still managed to fall out with its future rivals.

Formula One doesn't really do testing anymore, so the thought of a team spending a year on track away from

the spotlight of racing is hard to imagine. But two decades ago, Toyota decided it would take

the plunge into F1 with its own team, and the first car it produced completed more than

20,000 miles of running in 2001, but never competitively. My name is Glenn Freeman, and before we come to our guests today, including one very special guest,

remember we're only a few weeks away from the end of the series when we'll take your questions on F1's V10 era from 1989 to 2005,

so remember to submit those questions on Twitter using the hashtag Bring Back V10s.

Or leave us a five-star review on your favourite podcast platform and throw a question in that way.

But let's get on with today's episode and to kick things off looking back at Toyota's first steps into Formula One,

I'm delighted to say we are joined by a man who was there at the centre of everything going on around this time. The one and only Alan McNish. Alan, welcome.

Glenn, thank you very much. Hope you're all well.

Yeah, very well, thanks. Good to see you and good to catch up. And as you're the special guest, you can take on our opening question first, which in every

episode is quite simply, when you think of what we're talking about today, so in this case,

Toyota in 2001, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

First thing is opportunity. And I suppose the second thing is missed opportunity.

And that was for myself, but also I think as a team as well, because clearly, you know,

a great opportunity going into Formula One from the team perspective myself and missed opportunity because the results at the end weren't where everybody hoped it would be.

Sam Smith's also here and I'm going to have to do my best to stop this turning into a Formula E podcast

because Alan, as I'm sure you all know, runs the Audi team and Sam is our Formula E correspondent

here at the race. So Sam, I'm afraid there's no electric motors in sight here, but what do you first

think of when you look back to Toyota's year of testing in 2001?

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