The announcement of new technical partnership between Haas and Toyota immediately reopened the doors on what has been the history – so far very unsuccessful – of the Japanese manufacturer in Formula 1. The memory obviously goes to the early 2000s: from 2002 to 2009 the Asian giant tried in every way to achieve success in the Circus, spending staggering sums and setting up an official team in all respects.
Even Toyota for several seasons has also provided its own engine to other teamsand, supporting Jordan in 2005 and 2006 which later became Midland and Williams from 2007 to 2009. However, neither with its own team nor with customer teams has Toyota ever managed to collect not even a single victory in his nine active championships, consoling himself with 17 podiums overall (13 of which obtained with his own team) and three pole positions, all ‘home-made’ but none transformed into victories. There global economic crisis which exploded at the end of the first decade of the 2000s represented the ideal opportunity to leave F1 after having achieved much less – in terms of results – than hoped for.
The one made official today cannot be considered a true return: Toyota in fact – through its official Toyota Gazoo Racing team – will ‘limit’ itself to giving a technical support at Haasin an exchange of knowledge that will concern “design, technical and production services” and which in return will offer visibility and commercial returns to Toyota.
No direct commitment however, nor the ambition to return to the Circus as an engineer. The supplier of Haas power units will in fact remain Ferrari, which has approved the technical agreement with Toyota. The two great rivals of the endurance championship – Toyota and Ferrari – will therefore find themselves curiously ‘allies’ in the Circus. A further indication of how this new adventure of the Japanese really has nothing to do with the one that ended 15 years ago.
#Toyota #flop #2000s #commitment #minimal