Toyota won’t sell team ala Honda
November 6, 2009 by SJ Skid
Filed under Prime & Option, SJ Skid, Top Story
If any of you were hoping that the 2010 championship would be won by the team that rises out of Toyota’s ashes — and, hey, there’s precedent for that now — it is time to shelve your optimism.
Toyota team boss — former, I guess — John Howett scuttles those ideas (with a little opening left) in a Times piece.
In Cologne there was continuing gloom over Toyota’s sudden exit, which was announced in Tokyo on Wednesday, with the likelihood that many people will lose jobs as the company reorganises itself to focus on other areas of motor sport apart from Formula One. There have been reports that Toyota may try to sell the team as a whole, so that it could continue in Formula One, or that John Howett, the team president, might try to lead a Ross Brawn-style buyout.
However, Howett told The Times yesterday that both of these options had already been considered by senior managers in Japan. “I think it has already been discussed and rejected,” Howett said of a possible sale. “Maybe these ideas can be reopened but, at the moment, it would appear not.”
Also, I don’t think F1B wrapped this up — but the Toyota exit announcement was very emotional. Tears, apologies, the whole deal. Here’s the Times take; elsewhere I saw reports of the president breaking down into tears during the announcement.
Bowing to the cameras in Tokyo, Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota and scion of the founding Toyoda family, apologised for the miserable performance of the team. “This was a difficult but inevitable decision,” said Mr Toyoda. “Since last year with the worsening economic climate, we have been wrestling with the question of whether to press on in Formula One. Now we are exiting Formula One completely. I apologise to Toyota’s many fans for not being able to achieve the results we had intended to achieve.”
[snip]
Toyota also apologised publicly to its sponsors: it is understood that the company did not warn them in advance that it was about to quit. A spokesman for Panasonic, the largest sponsor of Toyota’s F1 team, said that it “respected” Toyota’s decision.
I suspect the phones of Panasonic and others have been ringing off the hook. They must be sick of Gasgyone’s leaving his cell number by now.
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In NASCAR there was someone called Suitcase Bob (or something like that) so names because he moved from team to team with a suitcase full of insider info. Should we rename Gasgoyne?
Anyways they don’t have Ross Brawn in their Cologne Setup, so rising from ashes would have been over optimistic dream even if there was MBO in Toyota F1 like Honda.
Its one thing to show emotions in press conference, I hope Mr Toyoda takes leaf from BMW board and not his rivals at Honda. No point in making “Emotional Decisions” and then not getting any returns in spite of funding entire 2009 campaign of Brawn GP.
I wonder if John Howett didn’t try to pull a Nick Fry on Toyota Board in Japan by presenting “Kobayashi Sushi” in their recent meeting and get 2010 budget approved. Nick Fry should be consulting his European Counterparts in F1 on these skills of manipulating funds of overseas backers ;-)
Toyota won’t sell team = “Welcome Sauber-Ferrari in 2010!”
Guess Nick Heidfeld will have to give his car back to Peter Sauber…
not selling the team also means that they keep the ability to build an F1 car should the need arise
Hmm – So they are thinking of moving on to another series, or are they just scuttling the idea of F1 for 2010? If Toyota announced plans at the end of next year that they were coming back to the F1 grid for 2011 would you as fans welcome them back?
Akio is a racer himself and a really big Formula 1 fan – I heard he even attended what became Toyota’s last race in Abu Dhabi. So does it come down to the team just not achieving the results that the board wanted them to (even after that “We don’t need to win to stay in the series” quote from Howett? Economics have to figure into it.
the guessing game have just started with Toyota assets, let’s see if the predictions goes better than last year’s Honda exit