Toyota withdraws from Formula One

[cider_and_toast]

Bad day for the Toyota team but good day for the Quadback/Sauber/BMW/Ferrari squad.

Just shows that cash can't get you everything.

Any team that had the money to pay little Schuey as much as they did for such little reward had to ask itself some serious questions.

Would have been interesting if Williams hadn't have moved and Kimi had accepted a contract because they would both be in the lurch.

As for Kobyashi, I hope he gets a drive. There are still some vacant seats that he could take. He could be the sole representative of Japan in F1 and as such should find sponsorship and backing a doddle. Hope he gets on the grid next year.

 

[fat jez]

Hopefully it means an end to drivers being given a drive purely because somebody wants to ensure that a manufacturer's nationality is represented on the grid. Kobayashi has every right to a drive, as he's done more in two races than the likes of Nakajima or Sata ever did.

 

[Brogan]

I mentioned it previously but what happens legally with regards to Toyota signing the Concorde agreement to commit to F1 until 2012?

Surely Bernie wouldn't sue......would he?

 

[cider_and_toast]

I guess that would depend on the wording of the contract as to what action he would take.

The concord agreement binds the teams into accepting the way the sport is controlled and the financial entltlement but as to what extent the teams are tied into the sport I guess we'll never know until some sort of legal action takes place. Since F1 ran for about the last 18 months with an unsigned agreement it didn't seem to make that much difference.

Any way, Time to chuck the Toyota name badges into the skip behind the FIA Headquarters alongside, Jaguar, Jordan, Midland, Spyker, Minardi, Honda and BMW (and that's just in the last 5 years). Wonder who'll be next??

Spoiler

RENAULT Of course !!!!

 

[fedupwithuserids]

I remember when Rover went under one of the reasons quoted (rightly or wrongly) among the press was that they where no longer involved in motorsport and even a bit of rebranding under the MG badge didn't help.

Entry into motorsport is a form of advertising, this is why manufacturer teams enter. Likely the investment required to stay in F1, Toyoto feel can be better spent elsewhere. Likewise with Honda & BMW.

IMO the only manufacturer who has to be committed to F1 is Ferrari, since they build 'race' cars they have to be involved in motorsport.

I agree with fat_jez and feel that the FIA and CVC should give a bit back - without the tracks & teams this sport is nothing, zilch, diddly squat.

Who's going to be intrested in an annual race in Abu Dhabi between a couple of Ferraris.

I think major teams pulling out like Honda, BMW and Toyota even if they where not doing well is a sign more of the state of F1 and its direction than financial factors.

The main car markets are ultimately in America and this is where Bernie should be searching for new tracks. The countries making up the Middle East may also be very rich but this wealth is divided among far fewer people.

 

[Brogan]

Ferrari put the blame squarely on the FIA and once again reiterate that in their opinion, the new independent teams joining F1 next year are second rate and not up the the normal F1 calibre...

Maranello, 4 November 2009 - It seems like a parody of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians", published in England for the first time in the year 1939, but reality is much more serious. Formula 1 continues loosing important parts: over the last 12 months Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and this morning Toyota announced their retirements. In exchange, if one could call it that, Manor, Lotus (because of the team of Colin Chapman, Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna, to name a few, there is hardly more than the name), USF1 and Campos Meta arrived. You might say "same-same", because it is enough if there are participants. But that's not entirely true and then we've got to see if next year we'll be really as many in Bahrain for the first starting grid of the 2010 season and how many will make it to the end of the season.

In reality the steady trickle of desertion is more the result of a war against the big car manufacturers by those who managed the sport, than the effects of the economical that affected Formula 1 over the last years. In Christie's detective novel the guilty person is only discovered when everybody else is dead, one after the other. Do we want to wait until this happens or should we write Formula 1's book with a different closing chapter?

We want a different closing chapter

 

[fat jez]

Is it too late to edit my posts? Don't want to be seen to be agreeing with Ferrari

 

[cider_and_toast]

How odd that Ferrari claim there is a war on manufacturer teams by the FIA when the FIA seem to have been doing so much to retain them in the sport. Even to the point where Renault are almost totally un-punished for crashgate when Mclaren received the million doller fine for upsetting poor little Ferrari.

Also strange that we didn't see any statement from Ferrari 15 or so years ago when the likes of Lotus, Brabham, Tyrell, Arrows and a host of other longstanding teams, some succesful and some not so went to the wall.

Wouldn't it be fun if one of the new boys actually managed to beat Ferrari on the odd occasion next season, after all, an independant Force India managed to have a go.

I can understand some of the sentiment in what Ferrari are trying to say but at the end of the day it's a vague attack on the FIA. I wonder how the former prodical son will take it now that he's El Presidente. Wouldn't really do to pee the new boss off on his first month in the office would it?

 

[fedupwithuserids]

C_a_T said :

How odd that Ferrari claim there is a war on manufacturer teams by the FIA

Maybe its a war on the powerful teams/members in FOTA.

Ron Dennis and Flav where meant to be a thorn in the back of Max & the FIA.

 

[bogaTYR]

I mentioned it previously but what happens legally with regards to Toyota signing the Concorde agreement to commit to F1 until 2012?

Surely Bernie wouldn't sue......would he?

spot on bro!

FIA is checking if toyota can indeed leave F1 at this point in time

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80012

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Good blog article by Joe Saward about Toyota and why they went wrong:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/why/

 

[Brogan]

I'm convinced that Toyota were planning to stay in F1 on the proviso that they signed Kimi.

When Kimi finally turned them down and they were left with a limited choice of drivers, they finally decided to cut their losses.

 

[Speshal]

I go away for one day and look what happens

Sad day for Toyota but as previously mentioned - lots of $$$$ and no