Since starting its F1 team in 2002, Toyota has poured in an unprecedented – although undisclosed – amount of money into its Formula One team. But after five years of lackluster performance, even Toyota's patience – and cash – is beginning to run out. Team principal Tadashi Yamashina revealed in his annual report that the company has given him until 2010 to increase the team's level of performance.
Although it hasn't been specified exactly what consequence it will bring if the Cologne, Germany-based team fails to meet the company's expectations, one could not imagine the coffers staying filled if the team continues to disappoint the bean-counters back in Japan.
In his report, Yamashina pinpointed aerodynamics and a failure to adapt to the new uniform Bridgestone tires as the principal reasons why the team failed to score even a single podium finish this past season, declaring that the team needs to improve in these areas in order to succeed. But Toyota's overall performance in 2007 was about par for the team, which hasn't placed better than fourth in the constructors' championship.
Better luck next year, Toyota. You're going to need it.
[Source: Autosport]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Penguin @ Dec 31st 2007 3:29PM
Hopefully they will leave, and we can all laugh because once again we see that you can't buy you wins.
racer01 @ Dec 31st 2007 4:00PM
Yea,
Ferrari and Mclaren are just lucky penny pinchers that know how to squeeze out wins with really small budgets. Toyota may spend more than other teams but not by much.
Alan @ Dec 31st 2007 4:15PM
Building an F1 team from nothing is very hard, and being in Germany probably doesn't help with luring experienced F1 personnel to the team.
Getting rid of Ralf sure won't hurt, but Toyota just seems lost as far as getting the car to be competitive.
The Penguin @ Dec 31st 2007 4:28PM
Toyota does spend just as much as Mclaren and Ferrari, except they are in the same place as teams that spend sometimes a third of what they are spending.
Mark @ Dec 31st 2007 4:35PM
x2
racer1 @ Dec 31st 2007 4:54PM
I agree that their results aren't where they should be BUT look at the Mclaren scandal - even they have to look elsewhere for the edge. I'd be pissed too if the smaller teams could buy older chassis' and run mid pack (I'm a huge Takuma fan anyway). Toyota is going at this alone with no input from the farm team. I applaud their efforts and hope they get the results hard work should deliver.
The Penguin @ Dec 31st 2007 5:31PM
Toyota may not have a dedicated "farm team," but Williams F1 uses the same engines, which is about all the sharing that there is in F1. And don't forget that Williams placed higher in the 2007 team standings than Toyota.
chris @ Dec 31st 2007 4:28PM
Yeah, their two main problems is being based in Germany instead of the UK and just being afraid to take risks. They just need to boot out their two senile drivers and throw some young guys in their who want to win and impress far more than they want to get their paycheck to buy a new house in Switzerland. But yeah, at least Ralf is gone now, should have been gone at the end of 2006 though.
The Penguin @ Dec 31st 2007 5:38PM
Well, they are trying to get some new drivers by bringing in Timo Glock, who I think will be their best driver next year.
MikeInNC @ Dec 31st 2007 6:03PM
Guys, Toyota doesn't have one of the largest F1 budgets, they have THE largest. Both Ralf and Jarno have won with other teams. Jarno was not a whole lot slower than Alonso at Renault in Fernando's first year there, then he went to the big "T" and commenced to doing nothing. It wasn't him. It was the car. Ralf won at Williams with BMW, another new entry (engine). Now BMW is eating Toyota up as well as the fact that Red Bull will probably pass them this year and Honda will probably be back ahead of them as well.
With a budget like that, think about what a team like Williams could have done. Toyota's F1 effort have been nothing short of a dismal failure for the amount of money they have spent.
They make very reliable cars and show some decent race results at lower levels but in F1 it's about innovation and they clearly cannot compete.