Toyota in Formula One

Toyota F1 is a Formula One team run by Japanese car manufacturer Toyota and based in Cologne, Germany. Toyota announced their plans to participate in F1 in 1999, and after extensive testing with their TF101 initial car, the team made their debut in 2002. The new team has grown from Toyota's long standing European Toyota Motorsport organisation, which has previously competed in the World Rally Championship and the 24 hours of Le Mans. Despite a point in their first ever race, Toyota F1 have not yet won a grand prix, their best finish being a couple of 2nd place finishes during the 2005 season, when it achieved three podiums and a pole position, as well as finishing fourth in the world constructors' championship with 88 points.

Toyota has drawn criticism for their lack of results, especially after the 2006 Formula One season, when the team's best result was 3rd place in the Australian Grand Prix. Toyota is an extremely well funded team, being a big manufacturer, and despite this coupled with their huge ambitions, strong results have never been consistent.

Racing history

1957-2002: Origins

The Toyota GT-One entered the 1998 and 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans with ex-Formula One drivers Martin Brundle, Thierry Boutsen and Ukyo Katayama. The car itself was competitive with the competition in terms of speed; however the car's inadequate relibility denied it a win at the famous race in France on both occasions.

Toyota made an early entrance into motorsport when a Toyopet Crown entered the Round Australia Trial in 1957. The Formula One team's roots can be traced to a later development in 1972, when Swede Ove Andersson's Andersson Motorsport team used a Toyota Celica 1600GT in the RAC Rally of Great Britain. The team was later renamed Toyota Team Europe and then, after being bought by Toyota in 1993, Toyota Motorsport GmbH. The rally team won four World Rally Championship drivers' titles, most notably with Carlos Sainz. The FIA banned the team from competition for 12 months in 1995 for running illegal parts. Toyota continued to win rallys on their return in 1996, but did not achieve the same level of dominance.

In 1997 the team moved into track racing with a sports car project, twice failing to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. On 21 January 1999 Toyota announced its move into Formula One. The company ended its rallying program in order to concentrate on Formula One. On June 30, 2000 the team secured its place as the 12th entry for the 2002 Formula One season. Originally intending to enter F1 in 2001, Toyota forfeited an $11Million deposit by delaying their entry. Unusually, Toyota opted to start their own works team rather than partner with a specialist race team and chassis manufacturer. The team was also set up away from Formula One's traditional manufacturing centre in 'Motorsport Valley' in the United Kingdom. During 2001, Toyota tested with their prototype TF101 car and drivers at 11 F1 circuits. The idea was to gain telemetry data for the races, which allowed them to make aerodynamic changes for the TF102, and for the drivers, Finn Mika Salo and Briton Allan McNish, to experience the tracks in the new cars. The cars were in different livery to that eventually used for the 2002 race car.

2002-2004: Early years

Olivier Panis driving the Toyota TF104 at the 2004 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. He finished the race in 5th.

2002

Toyota F1 debuted in Formula One competition in 2002, with McNish and Salo driving the Toyota TF102, designed by Gustav Brunner. Despite reportedly having one of the biggest budgets in Formula One, Toyota scored only two points all year, level with Minardi, and ahead of only one other team, Arrows, which ran out of money halfway through the season. Their first point was scored in their first race, the Australian Grand Prix, when half the field was eliminated by a first corner accident caused by Ralf Schumacher colliding with Rubens Barrichello. The team could have scored another point in the next race at the Malaysian Grand Prix, but Salo suffered an electrical misfire and the team fumbled McNish's pit stop. The Scot thus lost ground, and finished seventh, just out of the points, behind Sauber's Felipe Massa. The Brazilian Grand Prix, third race of the season, yielded Toyota's second and final point, once again scored by Salo. McNish endured a huge crash during practice for the end-of-season Japanese Grand Prix and missed the race on medical advice. Neither McNish nor Salo were offered jobs for 2003.

2003

For the 2003 season, Toyota signed Brazilian Cristiano da Matta, who had won the American ChampCar series the previous year using a Toyota powered car, and former BAR driver Olivier Panis to take over the racing duties from Salo and McNish. The team managed several points finishes during the season, but only as high as fifth place in Germany. High points of the season included Toyotas running first and second in the British Grand Prix, thanks to making their pit stops during while the safety car was out, and Panis qualifying third at the US Grand Prix. At the end of the season, the team had accumulated sixteen points, an improvement on the previous season, but still only 8th in the constructors' championship, ahead of the struggling Jordan Grand Prix team and Minardi.

2004

Toyota retained their driver line-up for 2004, but the season proved difficult. Both Toyotas were disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix for running illegal parts. Cristiano da Matta, after disappointing performances, left the team after the German Grand Prix, and was replaced by fellow Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, who had been the team's third driver. Zonta drove for Toyota for the following four rounds, before being replaced by Italian Jarno Trulli, who had left the Renault works team. Panis, meanwhile, announced his retirement from racing, and bowed out before the final race of the season in Brazil to allow Zonta, who had stepped aside for Trulli, to compete in his home race. Niether Trulli or Zonta scored points for the team in those late season races, although Trulli qualified well in both Grands Prix he took part in. Toyota brought in ex-Jordan and Renault designer Mike Gascoyne early in the year to oversee the development of the car, which improved during the year. The team scored just over half the points they scored in 2003, but equalled their best finish of fifth at the United States Grand Prix with Panis and maintained their 8th place in the constructors' championship.

Industrial espionage

2004 also saw Toyota being accused of industrial espionage in the case of stolen data files from Ferrari. This following a season where many Formula 1 fans commented on similarities of the Toyota TF104 to the Ferrari F2003-GA. The district attorney of Cologne, where Toyota F1 is based, led the investigation saying "It’s an immense amount of material. We’d need over 10 thousand pages to print everything." Toyota refused to send the data back to Italy because they did not want Ferrari to take advantage of their own data, which had been mixed in with Ferrari's.

2005-2006: Early success

Ricardo Zonta, replacing the injured Ralf Schumacher, qualifying in the Toyota TF105 at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.

Ralf Schumacher leading Jarno Trulli at the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix, where Trulli finished in 4th place.

2005

2005 saw an improvement in Toyota's fortunes. The team retained Trulli for the season but replaced Zonta with race-winner Ralf Schumacher from Williams, who during the team's launch for their 2005 car, the TF105, said that he had a better chance of winning the title at Toyota than he ever did at Williams. The team also supplied engines to the Jordan team. Toyota made a good start to the season, with Jarno Trulli qualifying second at the opening round in Australia and finishing second at the following two races in Malaysia and Bahrain. Results petered away slightly from this point, with Trulli scoring his only other podium with 3rd place at Spain and Ralf Schumacher rewarding the squad with 3rd place at both Hungary and China. Nevertheless, the 2005 season was Toyota's most successful Formula One season by far, as they scored points in all but the opening race and the controversial United States Grand Prix, where Trulli qualified in pole position, but like all the drivers using Michelin tyres, retired before the start of the race.

2006

Toyota retained the same driver lineup for 2006, though it switched to Bridgestone tyres and was the first team to unveil their new car very early into winter testing. The early start was intended to give the team an advantage over their rivals, but the team's performance in testing was average. Ralf Schumacher's third place in Australia was Toyota's only podium finish during 2006. Their highest race finishes thereafter were 4th at France with Schumacher and also at the USA; an exceptional performance from Trulli, who started from the back and fought his way through to beat champion Fernando Alonso's Renault. The team's season was plagued by mechanical failures, costing them valuable points which could have earned them 4th place overall like in 2005. Trulli came close to another podium in Monaco, but his engine failed during the late stages of the race. Jarno Trulli suffered a slight problem during the team's home race (the Japanese Grand Prix) and delayed team-mate Ralf Schumacher, meaning less points were scored than capable. In the final race - the Brazilian Grand Prix - both of Toyota's cars retired in the early laps with suspension failures, ending an unlucky season for the Japanese squad. Despite these set-backs, the team enjoyed the second best season performance in their history, scoring 35 points and finishing in sixth place, one point behind BMW Sauber.

Toyota surprised everyone when the announced they had dropped Mike Gascoyne from their technical department after the Melbourne race, especially as the Englishman had contributed to their rise in competitiveness during 2005. It was the result of a disagreement between Gascoyne and Toyota President John Howett over how the team should be run in the future. Gascoyne disliked the corporate way the team's management operated and was duly dismissed. It took a while for Toyota to replace the technical director, eventually promoting Pascal Vasselon to the role, saying that a technical department run by one man alone was becoming old fashioned.

2007 onwards: Alliance with Williams

Jarno Trulli driving the Toyota TF107 at the 2007 Bahrain Grand Prix. He finished the race in 7th place after qualifying 9th.

Trulli and Schumacher opted to stay with Toyota for 2007. The Toyota TF107 was officially launched on January 12 2007 in Cologne, Germany. Toyota's supply of customer engines has been moved from the Midland F1 team to British former constructors' champions Williams who had, by their own standards, underperformed with Cosworth engines during 2006.

Ralf Schumacher scored Toyota's first point of the season with 8th place in the year's opening Grand Prix in Melbourne. Jarno Trulli scored four points in the next two races in Malaysia and Bahrain with two 7th places in each event. Ralf Schumacher struggled in both of those, finishing no higher than 12th. During the four week break that followed the third round, Toyota tested at the Circuit de Catalunya, where the team stated improvements were made. Team president John Howett said Toyota were looking to close down on third-placed team BMW Sauber in the constructors' standings, having maintained 5th since Malaysia. This claim was met by a double-retirement in the race that followed in Spain, although Trulli did qualify his car 6th on the grid.

Toyota and the GPMA

Toyota joined the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) with the other car manufacturers involved in F1; BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Honda and Renault. The GPMA's intention was to have a united voice against the governing body of F1, the FIA and lobby for change in the way the sport is run. However, on 14 August 2006, Toyota left the GPMA, stating that the body had achieved its objectives.

Sponsorship

Tobacco sponsorship in Formula One has become a major issue in the past decade, but Toyota F1 have never had cigarette advertising, and have thus not come under fire from this argument. Panasonic has been Toyota's title sponsor since the team's first season in 2002. After Toyota's upturn in form from 2005, Panasonic extended it's sponsorship deal. Denso (a member of Toyota Group) and Esso have also been with Toyota F1 since that first year. The team's most recent partner is Kingfisher Airlines, with the deal being announced at the launch of the Toyota TF107 car in January.

Statistics

Other Toyota F1 statistics are in the info box at the top of this article. This section displays more in-depth statistics.

• Points = 155
• First Point Scored = 2002 Australian Grand Prix (Mika Salo)
• First Pole Position = 2005 United States Grand Prix (Jarno Trulli)
• First Fastest Lap = 2005 Belgian Grand Prix (Ralf Schumacher)
• Most Successful Toyota Driver (Poles) = Jarno Trulli & Ralf Schumacher (1 each)
• Most Successful Toyota Driver (Fastest Laps) = Ralf Schumacher (1)
• Most Successful Toyota Driver (Points) = Ralf Schumacher (66)

Notable Drivers

Based on a racer's credentials, Olivier Panis could be classed as Toyota F1's first notable driver, being their first man with a Grand Prix win to his name. However, that win was in lucky circumstances, when many of the front-runners (drivers for teams like Williams, Ferrari and McLaren) dropped out in the wet, tricky conditions. Otherwise, Panis had never driven for front-running teams, and joined Toyota in 2003 after a season with BAR that yielded just 4 points. Therefore, the following are racers of calibre who have shone for Toyota, and who have had reasonable success in F1 generally.

Ralf Schumacher

Main article: Ralf Schumacher

The German driver came to Toyota in 2005 from Williams with 6 Grand Prix wins to his name. After a rather lacklustre 2004 season with the Grove-based team, a need for change was felt and Ralf Schumacher joined Toyota. The Japanese team had yet to score a podium finish. However he settled in comfortably and bonded with new team-mate Jarno Trulli more comfortably than with the fiery Juan Pablo Montoya at Williams.

Schumacher appeared slower than Trulli in the first few races of the 2005 season, as the latter hit the headlines as he took Toyota to new heights. But Schumacher caught up, and ended the season on top, getting two podiums, the first of which was chasing his brother Michael for 2nd place in the Hungarian race.

He struggled throughout 2006 after saying he expected Toyota to score its first win, and once again, his best result was just 3rd. Schumacher split with long term manager Willi Weber during this season, and partnered with Hans Mahr, who tried to project Schumacher back into a winning team - a move that did not work.

Schumacher, however, wanted to prove he was still content with being at Toyota F1 through the following close season, and said he was more likely to still win the F1 title with Toyota than any other team, and that Toyota would be the team of the future. Schumacher and Toyota remain working comfortably together, chasing that elusive first victory.

Jarno Trulli

Main article: Jarno Trulli

Being Toyota's first recruitment of a top driver and Grand Prix winner, Jarno Trulli's move from Renault was big news. It was late during the 2004 season, and Trulli was dropped from Renault's race line-up after a season in which he struggled compared to his team-mate Fernando Alonso, and replaced by Jacques Villeneuve. Soon after, Toyota F1 revealed that Trulli would race for them during the 2005 season and beyond. However, Olivier Panis retired from racing before the year was out, leaving a space in Toyota's race attack, meaning Trulli was promoted rather earlier than anticipated. Qualifying 6th on his Toyota debut in Japan was the start of a competitive run for the team. No points were scored that year, although Trulli comfortably outpaced his team-mate Ricardo Zonta.

Trulli settled in well with Toyota, finding it easier to focus when not on tenterhooks with the Team Principal as he was with Renault's Flavio Briatore. As such, the first spark of form that that aspect was yielding was when Trulli qualified 2nd at Melbourne - Toyota's first front row start. He dropped off in the race with tyre trouble, but then went on to score Toyota's first podiums in Malaysia and Bahrain, with Principal Tsutomu Tomita saying the former result brought about 'the best day in my life'.

However, a term was created in that year - the 'Trulli Train'. This highlighted a recurring snag to Trulli's career. It referred to when Trulli qualified in a high position, but dropped away in the races (mainly due to tyre degradation in 2005). The result was the build up of a queue behind Trulli's car, which was present at numerous races throughout 2005, albeit not in his podium-scoring performances. Team-mate Schumacher tended not to suffer from these problems as much, partly because he often did not qualify as far up the grid as Trulli. He trailed off towards the end of the 2005 season, ending the year behind Ralf Schumacher.

Mechanical failure was a factor with the Italian's 2006 campaign, with the loss of podium finishes occurring all too often. It took Trulli until round 9 to score points, but he did so with 6th place after qualifying 4th. More great results followed, with his run from 22nd to 4th at Indianapolis standing out. However, it was a year with a notable lack of points scored, and did nothing for Trulli's reputation, allowing his critics to claw back at him.

Whereas Schumacher was talking of wins and even world titles with Toyota during the close-season before 2007, Trulli was much more conservative, saying that proof is needed before bold claims were made. The pace of the car was a worry during testing, but Trulli and Schumacher qualified in the top 10 in Melbourne, and finished the race there too, with Trulli just missing out on a point in 9th. Whereas Schumacher still anticipated wins before 2007 was out, Trulli said he knew they simply must keep improving.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Chassis/Engine Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Points	WCC
2002	TF102 Toyota V10 M		AUS	MAL	BRA	SAN	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	GBR	FRA	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN			2	10th
		Salo	6	12	6	Ret	9	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	15	7	11	14	8
		McNish	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	8	9	Ret	Ret	14	Ret	11	Ret	14	9	Ret	15	WD
2003	TF103 Toyota V10 M		AUS	MAL	BRA	SAN	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	ITA	USA	JPN				16	8th
		Panis	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	Ret	Ret	13	8	Ret	8	11	5	Ret	Ret	Ret	10
		da Matta	Ret	11	10	12	6	10	9	11	Ret	11	7	6	11	Ret	9	7
2004	TF104 TF104B Toyota V10 M		AUS	MAL	BAH	SAN	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA		9	8th
		da Matta	12	9	10	Ret	13	6	Ret	DSQ	Ret	14	13	Ret
		Panis	13	12	9	11	Ret	8	11	DSQ	5	15	Ret	14	11	8	Ret	14	14
		Zonta													Ret	10	11	Ret		13
		Trulli																	11	12
2005	TF105 TF105B Toyota V10 M		AUS	MAL	BAH	SAN	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	BRA	JPN	CHN	88	4th
		Trulli	9	2	2	5	3	10	8	Ret	DNS	5	9	14	4	6	5	Ret	13	Ret	15
		Schumacher	12	5	4	9	4	6	Ret	6		7	8	6	3	12	6	7	8	8	3
		Zonta									DNS
2006	TF106 TF106B Toyota V8 B		BAH	MAL	AUS	SAN	EUR	ESP	MON	GBR	CAN	USA	FRA	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA		35	6th
		Schumacher	14	8	3	9	Ret	Ret	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	4	9	6	7	15	Ret	7	Ret
		Trulli	16	9	Ret	Ret	9	10	17	11	6	4	Ret	7	12	9	7	Ret	6	Ret
2007	TF107 Toyota V8 B		AUS	MAL	BAH	ESP	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	EUR	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA
		Schumacher	8	15	12	Ret
		Trulli	9	7	7	Ret

See also

• Toyota
• Tsutomu Tomita
• John Howett
• Toyota Motorsport

External links

• Toyota F1's official website
• Toyota statistics

Footnotes

Formula One race and championship results are taken from www.formula1.com/archive Retrieved 1 February 2007.