Toyota to Fail and Go

[WillDAQ]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80002

Toyota set to announce it is leaving F1

By Biranit Goren Wednesday, November 4th 2009, 02:54 GMT

Toyota is expected to announced later today that it is withdrawing from Formula 1 with immediate effect, according to reports in the Japanese press, following a decision by the company's board of directors on Tuesday in Japan.

The official announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday afternoon Japan time, with representatives of the Toyota Motor Company reportly planning to hold a press conference to explain its decision.

The decision comes after months of speculation about the future of the team, a year after its Japanese rival Honda has withdrawn from F1 and just days following Bridgestone's announcement that it will end its F1 involvement after next season.

The Cologne-based Toyota team joined F1 at the start of the 2002 season, taking part in 139 grands prix and - albeit having one of the largest team budgets in the sport - failed to take a race win.

Suggestions the car maker will withdraw from F1 has surfaced throughout the year, but were repeatedly denied by company officials. Moreover, the team signed the new Concorde Agreement just recently, committing to the sport until the 2012 season.

Toyota Motor Corp is the largest car maker in the world, but the Japanese giant is forecasting an operating loss of over 8 billion USD.

Its decision to withdraw from grand prix racing paves the way for the the new owners of the BMW Sauber team to enter Formula 1 next year.

Press Conference is on right now..

[L2D]

http://forums.finalgear.com/formula-...n-thread-40017

[MattD1zzl3]

If sauber becomes another god damn cosworth team, f1 just dropped a few notches on the interest-scale

[WillDAQ]

Originally Posted by L2D

http://forums.finalgear.com/formula-...n-thread-40017

You don't think an entire team going overnight is perhaps worth it's own thread?

[Peter3hg]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

If sauber becomes another god damn cosworth team, f1 just dropped a few notches on the interest-scale

F1 was interesting enough when a Cosworth won practically every championship for 15 years.

[GraemeH]

Disgusting. I'm starting to believe that the sooner the manufacturers cut and run the better for the sport. All we hear is "we have passion for motorsport" and " we have motorsport in our blood" soundbites from these soulless corporations when it's fair-weather and economically beneficial to compete in f1, then as soon as the figures look bad they patronize everyone on their way out by pretending to have motorsport in their blood still.

Absolute shite.

Williams, ferrari, mclaren, they have motorsport in their blood. Those teams will race in f1 until the last penny has gone from the bank, and then they'll continue racing until the balifs come to seize their property. For a soulless company that specializes in bureaucracy and supports that business by making cars on the side to claim to be their kin whilst treating their racing operation as nothing more than a red mark in their "losses" column is an insult to every driver, mechanic and engineer that works in f1 - as well as every racing fan that works a 9-5 job so they can afford a ticket to go abroad to sit in the rain and wind to watch the cars go past for 1.5 hours before going home happy - THEY are the ones with a passion for motorsport. I don't see Mr.Toyoda out at Silverstone with an umbrella getting his kicks from the sport.

Get rid of the fair-weather manufacturers, get more independents in. The money in the sport will drop, but it will be sustainable; everyone's obsessed with cutting costs, well with a field of independents costs are necessarily kept under control, because they can only spend what they make from sponsorship from year to year. There's no factory pumping money into them.

tl;dr fuck people that don't understand racing but like to act as if they belong in that world.

And of course it deserves its own thread.

[devil500]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

If sauber becomes another god damn cosworth team, f1 just dropped a few notches on the interest-scale

They confirmed a while back that if they get a slot next year they'll be running Ferrari power.

[WillDAQ]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

If sauber becomes another god damn cosworth team, f1 just dropped a few notches on the interest-scale

The Cosworth is just the standard engine by another route, but I don't really see it being an issue. The original argument for avoiding the standard engine seemed to be keeping manufacturers involved.. and that's not gone so well.

Enough people are now using it that it provides an effective benchmark for the rest of the field. By 2011 I suspect any engine with more power gets reduced and any with less gets increased. Net result is a nice close field even though quite a lot of teams are paying a very reasonable price for their engines.

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by WillDAQ

Net result is a nice close field

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spec_series
wait......WAIT! Before you react with a insta-reply, click the link and read the first few sentances, they sound like they were written by max mosely himself!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_...n#NASCAR_usage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_dog

[zephyrus17]

Sports Tonight on OneHD did a part on the Toyota F1 press conference. Toyoda (or whoever it was, I didn't watch the whole thing) was in tears

[Zesty]

^Yep, saw that. Lots of people are going to be loosing their jobs.

I never had any feelings for the team, they did...nothing, but it's awful to see jobs go. I do, however, like their (ex) drivers. Hopefully someone else will pick up Kobayashi, he definately deserves a drive next year imho, if just for entertainment value alone! Trulli and Glock were headed elsewhere anyway (Glock -> Renault, Trulli -> Lotus??? aren't there rumours to that effect?).

[fochkoph]

Originally Posted by GraemeH

Disgusting. Absolute shite. Williams, ferrari, mclaren, they have motorsport in their blood.

Sums up my feeling towards major manufacturers using the economy as an excuse to pull out of Formula 1. They can tout their "heritage" all they want, but it honestly will mean nothing when the check bounces. I hope Renault doesn't follow suit and would LOVE to see at least one major car (Ferrari and McLaren don'tcount here ) manufacturer raise a big middle finger to all the others that pulled out and pull in world champion trophy. Be it Driver's or Constructor's. Please for the love of God, Renault, don't pansy out.

[Dr_Grip]

Wasn't there the nice tradition of failed japanese managers taking a dive into a samurai sword?

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by Dr_Grip

Wasn't there the nice tradition of failed japanese managers taking a dive into a samurai sword?

I think poison or jumping from a window are more popular these days... Swords are hard to come by, and usually too valuable to get acidic blood on.

[bone]

over here people just jump under a train...but i guess that's pretty hard in japan, with all the hoover-train-thingies

[Kiskaloo]

While what I love about F1 is the variety of engines and chassis, I will note that when Champ Car went to a "spec series" in terms of engines and chassis, it actually became pretty interesting and allowed them to continue to operate in a very fiscally-trying environment until the re-unification with the IRL.

I will also note that GP2 is a "spec series" and for the few years SPEED Channel has been carrying it, the races are often more exciting in terms of on-track action then the Formula One races.

[WillDAQ]

Quite a chunk of the cars is already spec anyway, certainly most of the stuff out on the corners is.

[Cobol74]

There just has to be a pinnacle of motor sport and it is F1 atm. Making it like Champ car is not what it is about - you want the glamour and the rivalries at all levels of possible IMHO - engines, chassis, drivers etc. ... Tyres if possible too.

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by bone

over here people just jump under a train...but i guess that's pretty hard in japan, with all the hoover-train-thingies

Actually, train jumpers are one of the worst causes of commuter delays in japan.

i have no idea if thats true or not

[Wilbert]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

I think poison or jumping from a window are more popular these days... Swords are hard to come by, and usually too valuable to get acidic blood on.

Blood is actually slightly Alkaline