Are Toyota going?

[kusee pee]

A piece in the Evening Standard tonight suggested that Toyota were withdrawing from F1 at the end of this year. Any truth? Did they get their entry in for next year?

[kusee pee]

Ignore me, just read it in the signing-up thread...

[flemke]

kusee pee said:

Ignore me, just read it in the signing-up thread...

Actually, it's not that straighforward.
As mentioned in another post, the Howett interview from today makes clear that the FOTA teams' entries today were contingent on the FIA's agreeing to a specific new Concorde Agreement, which FOTA and FOM have been working on for six months. Judging from what Howett said, this proposal contains a number of things that Mosley finds disagreeable, relating not only to the proposed terms of the formula, but also to its governance.
It's been clear for a while that Mosley was going to back down on >50% of the issues; his position simply isn't strong enough for him to "win". Nonetheless, Howett's comments today could be construed as his laying the groundwork for a Toyota withdrawal. That is, although Mosley isn't going to win, it is inevitable that FOTA will compromise on some points of their proposal. This could give Toyota scope to withdraw, on the basis that FOTA's proposal was not fully accepted.

[kusee pee]

Thanks flemke. So am I right in thinking that they haven't withdrawn yet but are (maybe) planning to?

[rubystone]

Sayonara....