Last week the Toyota Motor Company followed in the footsteps of Honda and BMW by confirming its withdrawal from Formula One. An emotional company president, Akio Toyoda, addressed the media and explained that his board’s decision is a direct result of the global financial crisis. Toyota’s retreat leaves Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault as the only car makers remaining in F1.

It is a little ironic that Toyota is leaving the sport just as the F1 team discovered the one thing that it always wanted – a fast Japanese driver.

Toyota’s exit after eight unsuccessful years will ensure the company’s time in F1 is remembered as an embarrassing failure.

Since 2002 Toyota has enjoyed the largest budget in Formula One history and the parent company invested billions of dollars into their racing efforts. Despite having access to everything that money could buy, Toyota did not register a single Grand Prix victory and never looked like becoming serious contenders. In the end the manufacturer scored just three fuel assisted pole positions, roughly one per billion dollars spent.

Although Formula One history is full of expensive disasters none of them can match the sheer scale of Toyota’s. Even without the global financial crisis it was only a matter of time before the Japanese management ran out of patience with the fruitless F1 project.

Toyota’s withdrawal will have a big impact on the sport but it was not a major surprise. There were a number of clues throughout 2009 that suggested the team was nearing the end of its lifespan.

Earlier this year Toyota announced it would not be confirming its 2010 budget until November. This was a huge indication the company was not committed to a long term future in F1 and at best it disrupted the team’s preparation for the new season.

Toyota also confirmed during the year they would no longer sponsor the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway. Toyota bought the circuit in 2000 and invested a huge amount of money to upgrade the facilities specifically to host an F1 race. Their decision to abandon the Grand Prix and give it back to Suzuka was a significant change of strategy.

John Howett also informed both of his drivers to negotiate with other teams for 2010, and Jarno Trulli hinted that another car maker would “probably” leave the sport before the end of the season.

Interestingly, Williams got out of their Toyota engine contract in favour of a deal with Cosworth, suggesting they had little faith in their future with the Japanese manufacturer.

To top it all off the team endured yet another disappointing year. The TF109 was not a bad car but the drivers and engineers were unable to release its full potential.

Toyota’s F1 exit was always on the cards.

Hindsight offers perfect vision but even with that in mind there are a lot of things that Toyota could have done differently to increase their chances of Grand Prix success.

The company treated Formula One as a promotional activity and not a sporting challenge. The racing budget was supplied by Toyota’s marketing department and the mindset that F1 was just a public relations exercise did not help them on track.

This was evident in Toyota’s decision to hire Ralf Schumacher. Although Ralf was not a bad F1 driver, he was not especially good and was certainly not worth the millions that went into his salary. Ralf’s appointment was based on the value of his surname which found its way onto billboards everywhere. The word ‘Schumacher’ represented victory, just like a high profile brand name, and Toyota wanted casual sports fans to associate that with their cars. The perception that Ralf Schumacher was quick was more important to Toyota than him actually being quick. That sort of attitude was never going to work in the cut throat world of Formula One where the chequered flag is the ultimate judge.

Toyota also based their team in Germany which meant they were unable to attract the best F1 staff who are mostly found in England. Their designs were usually very conservative, and they made accomplished team boss, Ove Andersson, step aside due to his age.

One of the biggest mistakes the Japanese made was sacking Mike Gascoyne. The British technical director was starting to turn things around at Toyota and his first full year was their most competitive. However, Gascoyne ruffled a lot of feathers in the process and did not sit well with Toyota’s corporate committee driven culture. When the company terminated his employment they lost one of the most gifted technical leaders in the sport and also scared their other staff into thinking they would lose their jobs if they spoke up.

The team was also hurt by its choice of drivers. Toyota developed a tendency to hire uninspiring journeyman who were nearing the end of their careers.

Mika Salo and Allan McNish were the first two men to race for Toyota in 2002. They were both solid competitors with well rounded experience but neither was spectacular. The same could be said of their replacements, Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta.

The first really quick driver that Toyota signed was Jarno Trulli. Unfortunately, Jarno’s inconsistency featured heavily during his five years at Toyota and it did not help that he was teamed up with Ralf Schumacher for three seasons. Ralf’s form was patchy at best and even his surname was not enough to save him from being replaced by Timo Glock in 2008.

Glock developed from a GP2 champion into a competitive F1 driver but was still not the superstar that Toyota craved.

A mega quick World Champion like Kimi Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso would have had a big impact on the team and would have made the company’s F1 investment a little more valuable. A fast Japanese driver would also have had the same effect as it would have appealed to Toyota’s sense of national pride.

It is worth remembering that one of the reasons Toyota entered Formula One was to compete against their Japanese arch rivals, Honda, so popularity back home was very important to them.

Sadly, when Toyota signed the driver they had always dreamed of, it was too late to save their F1 program.

In the final two races of 2009 Kamui Kobayashi did enough to prove that he belongs in Formula One. Whilst it is way too early to rate him as a definite star of the future, he performed more admirably than the other mid-season rookies of 2009. He finished a solid ninth in Brazil and outdrove Kimi Raikkonen in Abu Dhabi to end up sixth.

Kobayashi was criticised in Brazil by the Brawn team for swerving on the track, but the young Japanese driver did nothing wrong and simply defended his position with controlled aggression. Kazuki Nakajima had more reason to complain though as Kobayashi simply ran him off the road, a dangerous manoeuvre that should have been penalised.

However, Kamui proved in Brazil that he is a tenacious fighter and backed this up with an excellent first lap in Abu Dhabi, and a well timed overtaking move on Jenson Button.

He was arguably the most exciting new talent of the year. It would be a shame if Toyota’s withdrawal prevented the 23 year old from building on that stunning debut.

It’s already a shame for Toyota who could have used Kobayashi twelve months ago.

Post a comment