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Name: Toyota

Will Toyota ever supply value for money? That was the question being asked up and down the paddock after a mediocre 2007 season for a team that boasts the biggest budget in the sport.

While the Toyota 'brand' undoubtedly receives gainful exposure from the team's involvement, it is fair to assume that, without a grand prix win in six seasons, the company's hierarchy will be growing impatient at their lack of success.

While this is their first foray in Formula One, Toyota nonetheless have had a long history in motorsport, with much of their success coming in the World Rally Championship - in which they have won seven titles.

They also entered the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998 and 1999, finishing second in the latter year and have also had a strong CART presence for a number of years.

2002, their first year in Formula One, was closely watched but yielded no points.

Drivers Mika Salo and Allan McNish were widely blamed but, given the huge budget at Toyota's disposal and their limitless testing - in 2001 they ran a whole shadow season - there was no doubt that the team as a whole should have done better.

Given the potential power of Toyota, rival teams still feared they would be at the front of the grid sooner rather than later, and the 2003 season saw that threat begin to materialise.

Drivers Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta put in some impressive performances - the latter leading the British Grand Prix for a while - although there were more disappointments than celebrations.

Yet that improvement was reversed in 2004. Panis and da Matta failed to inspire, while the team was left to rue the boast of boss Tsutomu Tomita that they would score points at every race.

In all, a paltry nine were forthcoming.

Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher replaced Panis and da Matta for the 2005 campaign which finally saw a few dividends reaped from Toyota's hard work and financial clout.

The year couldn't have started better, with Trulli grabbing three podiums in the opening four races.

And although their first race victory remained elusive, the Cologne outfit claimed further top-three results courtesy of Schumacher, which helped elevate them to fourth place in the constructors' championship.

Having had a taste of the podium champagne, Toyota were keen to move forward in 2006 when, once again, Schumacher and Trulli were behind the wheel. But it didn't happen.

The team got off to a bad start at the opening race in Bahrain, where Schumacher and Trulli struggled for pace, the pair eventually finishing a dismal 14th and 16th respectively.

Schumacher gave them some hope when he claimed eighth place and third place at the following two races in Malaysia and Australia.

However, the German's podium finish Down Under was to be Toyota's only top-three finish of the season.

Their disappointing start to the season led to internal strife that eventually resulted in technical director Mike Gascoyne packing his bags and leaving in April.

Toyota's results did, however, improve around the mid-season mark, at least in qualifying.

In races, though, they were besieged by technical and mechanical problems.

2007 wasn't any better; in fact it was worse.

A total of seven points-scoring finishes were achieved throughout the 17-race campaign, with not a single podium result in sight.

It represented a drop of 22 points for Toyota, the net result being the axing of Schumacher, who departed Toyota and F1 at the end of the season while Trulli was given a new team-mate for the new season in Timo Glock.

But it has to be said that, unless Toyota can find a way to improve their results in 2008, patience at their Japanese headquarters may be stretched way passed thin.