Toyota's F1-san calls it quits
Any way you look at it, Toyota's foray into Formula 1 has not yielded positive results. Despite throwing unprecedented amounts of money at the effort, their F1 team has not produced the kind of results to which the automotive giant has become accustomed. So they've apparently decided that it was time for a change in management.
Tsutomu Tomita, who saw the program through from conception to fruition, will be yielding to corporate vice-chairman Tadashi Yamashina at the end of June. Toyota has yet to announce what role Tomita will assume upon his return to corporate headquarters, but you can bet it won't be as exciting as the fast-paced world of F1 racing.
Toyota is spinning the shift as an ordinary shuffle in management, but when their F1 team has been rumored to benefit from the largest budget on the grid and has still yet to win a single race, it becomes clear that Toyota is hoping a new boss at their racing headquarters in Cologne will change their fortunes.
[Source: TSN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
wozzzzzz 11:26AM (9/29/2008)
Toyoda whitegoods sux big time, being the most boring car manufacturing company on the planet, trying to win just one exciting race shows you how desperate they are, extra corolla sales maybe but no performance car on offer..
Toyoda sewing machines are a big FUC*ing Joke
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ckm 7:12PM (4/27/2007)
They are in the wrong place.
When 7 out of 11 teams are located in the UK, it says something about where the talent and engineering skills are. To compete at a top level and have a hope in hell of winning, you must be near it.
The only team consistently winning and not in the UK is Ferrari. And Ferrari is the only manufacturer who has raced in every F1 season since F1 was founded in 1950...
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Squid 7:16PM (4/27/2007)
Unlike Nascar It takes more than just money to compete in F1. You have to be at the top of your game when it comes to technology to compete what with the ever changing tire and rules changes that is F1.
http://www.toyotatundraforum.com
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Viv 7:42PM (4/27/2007)
#2 I got news for yaa. Even with all the money they threw turdyota cna't even compete with single team guys who run their cars out of their garages in NASCAR. Turdyota should just stick to making borrring cars like camry. They can't cut in the racing world.
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Ima BAD Man 8:40PM (4/27/2007)
#3 Really?? Toyota can't race???
Ivan Stwardt won how many baja's and stadium races??
The toyota sprint cars have won a championship or 2.
The NASCAR Tundra is destroying everyone else.
And lets not even start with drag racing...the supra/solara drag cars are still pretty dominate in the import pro drag racing circuit.
Rod Millen still has the fastest time up pike's peak in you guessed it...a toyota.
So care to try again?
F1 is a different horse for Toyota...Honda won most of its F1 races back in the day when it was a Lotus/Williams chassis and a honda engine. Toyota has shown they can build an F1 engine that makes good power and is decent on reliabilty...its just they don't have the chassis aero package right now. Case in point williams runs Toyota engines and outpace the Toyota team...just means toyota needs some more development.
Hell the only way a team other than Ferrari, Mclauren, or Renault are going to win this year is if those 3 teams destroy themselves in the first corner.
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Ima BAD Man 8:44PM (4/27/2007)
here #3...read a little.
http://www.toyota.com/motorsports/history.html
I forgot that a Toyota powered vehicle won the 24 hours of Daytona
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Drewboy 10:26PM (4/27/2007)
Even if Toyota won races, it wouldn't change my opinion that they're a lame company. The only thing they make non-Lexus that appeals to me slightly is the RAV-4 V-6... I don't see anything sporty (FAST) for a good price.
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sfast 10:48PM (4/27/2007)
I think this is the biggest problems with the Toyota team. They never settle down. They are always making changes. For their first few years they had many different drivers and since then they have made changes like this. They just need to settle down a little and work harder.
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HotRodzNKustoms 11:03PM (4/27/2007)
Sad they can't even compete when they have the largest budget of anyone and are cheating. Stealing secrets from Ferrari and adding illeagal substances in their Nascars' fuel. I do not doubt their racing history which has had it's shining moments, but at the moment they cannot compete.
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jj 12:54AM (4/28/2007)
I'd quit too, if I had a monster budget, a Schumacher, and STILL couldn't win a single race.
Toyota motor sports are and always have been a joke.
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JGN 1:39AM (4/28/2007)
Persistence will pay off. I don't like that Toyota was caught cheating, but I'd be very surprised if there was a team that wasn't.
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Barney 1:51AM (4/28/2007)
You can tell by a few of the posts that they are getting worried. When you read the snide remarks, it's evident Toyota is continuing to win. Drewboy and Viv obviously never watched a race. To bad boys! It's not the country but the team that wins.
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jj 12:27PM (4/28/2007)
HAHAHAHA TOYOTA CONTINUING TO WIN
That's a good one!
I don't know if anyone ever told you, but in order to "continue" to do something you must do it for the first time, which, well, Toyota F1 NEVER has.
That's right superstar, race victories: ZERO. Check your facts next time.
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Barney 12:44PM (4/28/2007)
12. HAHAHAHA TOYOTA CONTINUING TO WIN
That's a good one!
Winning in the sense that they have you on edge. You show your fear jj. Your afraid and worried that the Toyota F1 team will kill your vision. What garbage will you spew forth when Toyota shows supremacy. Will you say they cheated, have more money or just come up with some bigoted response.
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KJC 2:18PM (4/28/2007)
He should be gone, he has brought much shame to Toyota for not winning a single race with Ferrari/Mclaren bugets. Look what BMW has done in just of couple of seasons this year.
For hiring Half Shumacher and Jarno Trulli two talentless, below average, and worthless drivers. Neither of these two have improved the car since joining the team and they are supposed to be experienced drivers.
Toytoa should just leave F1 all together because they will not be winning anything soon.
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Steve 6:09PM (4/28/2007)
To the Bufoon #1
germany has more talent and engineering skills than this turd called britain can ever hope for.
7 out of 10 teams are there because it is the headquarters of political intrigue and corrupt leadership which twists the rules to suit the england based teams.
Ferrari has attacked this fraud many times, but unless germany comes out of its wwii inferiority complex and behaves confidently and assertively, it is not a surprise that turd-ol-england will continue calling the shots.
Toyota's decision to base its F1 team in germany is the right one.
But its decision to stay in F1 run by fraudsters from england is a wrong one.
Unless F1 headquaters are moved from england to mainland europe or china, germany and italy will never be able to realize their true potential.
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Felix 3:15PM (4/29/2007)
What exactly is toyota hoping to accomplish in F1? Why enter into the MOST EXPENSIVE form or racing if you're not even going to sell a single performance car in your line up? What's the sportiest car that toyota sells right now? a carolla S? Why the hell is toyota wasting their money with this crap?
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mike 11:12AM (4/30/2007)
Barney, From the looks of it, we'll never have to worry about that.
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Don 9:57PM (5/02/2007)
Suck it, Toyota!
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