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Toyota Motorsport will quit Formula 1 next season
The Japanese team has never matched large financial investment with success on the track
Car-making giant Toyota has pulled its team out of Formula 1. An emotional Tadashi Yamashina, chairman of Toyota Motorsport, told a Tokyo press conference today that "based on the current economic environment, we realise we have no choice but to withdraw. This has been a very painful decision. I offer my deepest apologies to Toyota's many fans for not being able to achieve the results we had targeted."
The Japanese company, the largest manufacturer of automobiles in the world, entered Formula 1 in 2002 but in the 139 races it completed it never placed higher than second. This season saw the team finish in fifth spot in the constructors' championship with 58.5 points (including five podium finishes), with drivers Jarno Trulli (32.5 points) and Timo Glock (26 points) in eighth and tenth respectively in the drivers' table.
Toyota's decision comes against the wider economic backdrop; the company lost $3.9bn during the last fiscal year, a figure that is projected to increase to $5bn for the year to March 2010. Their Cologne-based Formula 1 team is notorious within the motorsport for the amount of money it spends. A £270m outlay during the 2008 season when the team scored 56 points equated to £4.8m a point, an investment which proved unsustainable in the long run without success
Formula 1 now finds itself having lost three mass-market auto-makers over the last year. Honda pulled out in December 2008 before the 2009 season began, followed by BMW announcing their intention to pull out in July this year. The Sauber team who were previously partners with BMW could be the immediate beneficiary of the move; they were saved when the Swiss-based Qadbak Investments stepped in with funds two months ago, and are currently the reserve team for next season.
The news will be particularly embarrassing to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who was bullishly assuring the Daily Telegraph just last night that the Japanese would not be withdrawing from the motorsport. "Listen, it's very simple, Toyota are having a board meeting in Japan. It was always foreseen that there would be a board meeting in November to discuss what they will do about their team competing in F1.
The diminutive businessman continued: "They have signed a Concorde Agreement until 2012. It's signed by Toyota Motor Company so I very much doubt they would not go through with something they have already signed. They are not the sort of people to back out of a deal like that." ·
