Video: Toyota F1 Exit Opens New Doors
New GT1, Le Mans and WRC challenges could all follow the exit from F1 - but where will Toyota go?
As Toyota announced a painful withdrawal from F1 this morning, no attempt was made to suggest a future direction for its motorsport activity.
Fortunately, PH is happy to step into the breach with a dose of timely speculation on a handful of intriguing possibilities - namely a return to the quest for outright victory at Le Mans, the new FIA GT world championship, and of course the new 'cost effective' S2000 category for the WRC.
Toyota has a long and illustrious motorsport history and, in spite of its withdrawal from F1, the company's new president Akio Toyoda (who has raced the Lexus LF-A at the Nurburgring) has confirmed an ongoing commitment to competition.
"I have been calling for product-focused management since I became president at Toyota this June," he said today in the press conference called to announce the departure from F1.
"That priority mandates a fundamental shift in resource allocation. A sad result of that shift is that we have insufficient resources to maintain a viable commitment to F1 racing.
"Motor sports remain an important means of personalizing the automobile in the eyes of customers. Motor sports also remain an important means of cultivating human resources and our R&D operations.
"We will rethink our motor-sports activities with an eye to maximizing those benefits while addressing economic realities. And we will take what we learn on the racetrack and put it to work in ever-better vehicles that are aimed at meeting the highest of expectations."
Here at PH towers, we think 'product focused management' can only mean one thing - a return to forms of competition that showcase metal you can actually buy in the showroom.
It's no secret that Toyota top brass in Japan have fond memories of vintage WRC victories with cars like the Celica and Corolla, and they also speak wistfully of 'unfinished business' at Le Mans, where their best result was a second place finish in 1999 with the GT-One.
With the Lexus LFA supercar, and the FT-86 coupe coming on stream, it seems certain that Toyota products will appear in GT racing one way or another - but where will Toyota put its own money?
Clips like the fantastic video edit below should provide some inspiration...
Citreon baffles me even more, why hasn't there been a hot version released to replicate their rally car and steal sales away from Subaru and Mitsi? So much sucess in rallying seems to have been wasted (IMO) by not having a car the rally fans can buy.
Any I completely agree that Toyotas withdrawal was because they couldn't suceed no matter how much money they threw at it. They should always have been better than they were.
Citreon baffles me even more, why hasn't there been a hot version released to replicate their rally car and steal sales away from Subaru and Mitsi? So much sucess in rallying seems to have been wasted (IMO) by not having a car the rally fans can buy.
Any I completely agree that Toyotas withdrawal was because they couldn't suceed no matter how much money they threw at it. They should always have been better than they were.
"Tadashi Yamanashi, Chairman of Toyota Motorsport, sheds a tear during a press conference at Toyota's head office in Tokyo, to announce their withdrawal from Formula One racing"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/p...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Motorsport_Gmb...
"In 1995 TTE was famously banned for 12 months from the WRC for cheating by designing an illegal air restrictor that included both a bypass mechanism and spring loaded devices to conceal it from scrutineers."
I think it's a stupid move to go back into rally as things stand, not unless we get homologinated cars again.
I think going back to the WRC would be a good move, they could reduce their spending to under a tenth of their F1 budget and put some pressure on both Ford and Citroen.
It's still a shame.
CK
It would definitely be nice to see more manufacturers in WRC.
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