Toyota launched their new Formula One car yesterday as the Japanese auto giant look to step up their challenge for the championship after two lacklustre previous seasons. Drivers Jarno Trulli, newcomer Timo Glock and number three Kamui Kobayashi joined the presentation of the TF108 at the team’s Cologne headquarters yesterday.

The Toyota F1 team have been in operation since 2000 and competing since 2002 but results have not matched the company’s huge budget outlay of an estimated US$400mil a year.

Last season the team were well off the pace of leading manufacturers Ferrari and McLaren - who this week also unwrapped their new cars - and are still without a win in 104 Grand Prix races.

The last two seasons have been hugely disappointing after promising results in 2005 when Toyota achieved three podiums and a pole position.

Team principal Tadashi Yamashina said the team need to take make “a great improvement” on 2007 when they garnered just 13 points.

“We are in Formula 1 to win, so we want to do this soon,” he said ahead of the launch.

“The drivers should be aiming to finish in the points regularly and challenging for podiums.”

Yamashina has said Toyota may pull out of F1 altogether unless the team can start producing results over the next two years.

The team hope the TF108, which has a longer wheelbase, a major aerodynamic upgrade, revised suspension and a new gearbox, will revive fortunes.

Toyota have retained Trulli who finished 13th last season and hired 25-year-old German Glock, the reigning GP2 champion.