So Can You Remind Me Why Toyota Is In Formula One?

Why do automotive manufactures race?

The desire to compete, improve and obtain the ultimate victory may motivate many.

Others may take a more altruistic view, and take the technology learned on the track to improve their vehicles to the public.

And of course a few view the sport as the ultimate form of advertising. However you may look at Formula One though, poor performance is generally not the best way to achieve any goal.

Unfortunately for Toyota when push comes to shove in ultra competitive Formula 1 scene, their efforts seem to consistently fall short.

Toyota entered the series in 2002 and has substantial backing and engineering ability, so it seems they should place far higher than they actually do. The results this season are further exasperated by the Williams’ team that in their first year of using the same Toyota engine, is fairing better than the factory effort despite a half of the budget. Why?

In March 2007 F1 Racing published its annual estimates of spending by Formula One teams. The total spending of all 11 teams in 2006 was estimated at $2,986 million. This conveniently had been broken down as follows;

	2006 Budget	2006 Standings	2007 Standings

Toyota	$418.5 m	6^th – 35 points	7^th - 9 points
Ferrari	$406.5m	2^nd – 201 points	2nd - 211 points
McLaren-Mercedes	$402m	3^rd - 110 points	1^st - 138 points
Honda	$380.5m	4^th – 86 points	9^th - 1 point
BMW Sauber	$355m	5^th – 36 points	3^rd - 61 points
Renault	$324m	1^st - 206 points	4^th - 32 points
Red Bull	$252m	7^th -16 points	6^th-16 points
Williams-Cosworth	$195.5m	8^th -11 points	5^th - 18 points
Midland/Spyker	$120m	10^th -0 points	11^th - 0 points
Toro Rosso	$75m	9^th – 1 points	10^th - 0 points
Super Aguri	$57 m	11^th -0 points	8^th - 9 points

Taking the initial investment of $250 million for Toyota to enter the Formula One circuit in 2002 and assuming equal annual increases until we reach the 2006 budget of almost $419 million we can see their progress through the years in relation to expenditure..

Toyota historical placement

2002	$250m	10th
2003	$292m	8th
2004	$334m	8th
2005	$376m	4th
2006	$418m	6th
2007	$460m	7th (estimated)

Believe it or not, Toyota has made a very impressive expenditure of over $1.67 BILLION coming into the 2007 season in the pursuit of the Formula One crown! Truly an incredible accomplishment.

So what is the ultimate point of Formula One for Toyota and what did they gain?

Obviously, as we can tell from the results, winning through competition was not a not a factor so we can rule that out.

How about bringing technology to the masses? As much as I rack my brain, I can’t think of a single Formula One advance brought to the street by Toyota. (I hope you can enlighten me on this though) However to give credit, where credit is due, they do claim the new V10 in the Lexus LF-A was inspired by their Formula One efforts. Hopefully the inspiration of this new power plant isn’t simply limited to the number of cylinders it has.

Advertising? No doubt this has been a boon for them but to spend over $2.1 billion dollars at the close of this season advertising to the limited Formula One market is questionable at best.

While ee can all speculate the true motives of Tyota, but I think many of us can agree, to the average buyer, the location of the cup holders in their Camry may be more important to them than Formula One.

So can you remind again me why Toyota is in Formula One?

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 2:35:26 PM

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Thanks! My psychotherapist agrees with you...

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 2:42:12 PM

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"McLaren and Honda outspent Toyota last year"

Not according to the article, however if you have figures to the contrary please let us know.

bimmermike2 - 7/28/2007 1:22:27 PM

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They are in Formula 1 strictly to launder money for their main financial partners, the Columbian Cocaine Cartel.

david989 - 7/27/2007 2:30:37 PM

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Still more successful than BMW.

chewy - 7/27/2007 2:37:50 PM

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cause 9>61

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 2:40:20 PM

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how do you figure? BMW placed ahead of Toyota both in 2006 and 2007.

david989 - 7/27/2007 2:44:26 PM

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Well BMW is not very successful in F1.

ThierryHenry14 - 7/27/2007 10:15:19 PM

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BMW is their own team. BMW sauber is 100% BMW engineered, just with sauber name attached.

bimmermike2 - 7/28/2007 1:17:13 PM

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Suicide is the only way out for you david!

Anti_Bangle - 7/28/2007 2:58:21 PM

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lithon, the team is fully 100% owned and run by BMW. The team is called BMW Sauber just to pay tribute to Peter Sauber.

Anti_Bangle - 7/28/2007 2:58:52 PM

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"Still more successful than BMW."

It's the other way around if you look at the points scored.

ThierryHenry14 - 7/29/2007 6:15:41 PM

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so are you saying that you own nothing, even though you bought them? I mean, I guess when you buy something, you own it. When you buy stocks, I assume you own it. Do you live in Cuba?

M53R - 7/27/2007 4:10:03 PM

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BMW owns 80% of sauber

w209w114 - 7/27/2007 2:53:43 PM

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Hooray Mercedes :) Excellent work.

M35MT - 7/27/2007 3:07:07 PM

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Maybe their executives actually have a passion for the sport?

Think about it 009. Most people who are actually aware that Toyota competes in Formula 1, are people like you that don't want them there. The average camry and carolla buyer doesnt have a clue. This is not for advertising purposes.

You have way too much time on your hands...oh, wait...is this your job? Reading OTHER people's articles all day long? Failed journalist are we? Don't take that too personal, Toyota won't take your comments to heart either.

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 3:54:32 PM

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The problem is systemic for Toyota unfortunately. They do extremely well when they can easily outspend the competition.

Craftsman Series (Toyota)is a fine example and Rolex Racing is another (Lexus).

But you put them in the arena with the upper crust of a racing division and they simply pale. Formula One is a prime example, and NASCAR appears to be another.

NASCAR might not be an upper crust sport, but the competition is extremely serious and many of the drivers are accomplished in other series. Simply put the manufactures there know a thing or two and will spend the money to so it.

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 4:02:04 PM

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Would it surprise you to know I had had owned a few Lexus in the past?

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 4:04:44 PM

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Hmm Ferrari has had fourteen World Constructors Championship titles 1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. So how does that compare?

SevorbeupstryIsBack - 7/27/2007 6:14:38 PM

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"Ferrari sucked royally in F1 for nearly 2 decades before Schumi came along. Didn't hear anyone asking why they're in F1"

My God you are so stupid. I feel bad for you.

bimmermike2 - 7/28/2007 1:31:17 PM

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009, don't forget to mention with Ascari driving they won in '52 and '53, and with Juan Manuel Fangio they also won in '56. Prior to '58 there was no constructors champion, there was only drivers champion.

Agent009 - 7/27/2007 4:30:37 PM

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Never said Honda was any better or worse, But the question could be posed for them too.

Neverfollow - 7/27/2007 5:23:01 PM

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First of all. $400M is a drop in the bucket for the kind of money they make in the real car business so I guess as the old saying goes; if you've got it..........

Second, if the LF-A benefits from any of Toyota's F1 technology it will probably experience multiple engine failures and will probably have to rely in a hybrid electric motor in order to limp back into the Lexus garage.

Third, The F1 cars could probably benefit from some of Lexus' technology if they could figure out how to incorporate the self parking system.

Sorry, just had to get that out!

SevorbeupstryIsBack - 7/27/2007 6:03:36 PM

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Well-balanced, solid text. And full of truth.

Nice work.

rocker - 7/27/2007 6:53:55 PM

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Hire a competent driver. Jarno Trulli is a good driver for a middle of the pack team but Ralf is sad and pathetic. Hire a driver, spend money on a driver and then see the results. Why do they think everyone competes for the likes of Alonso, Kimi and in the very near future Lewis Hamilton? Get a top notch driver. It doesn't mater how much money, power or technology you put in a race car if you do not have a driver that can translate that to the track.

rocker - 7/28/2007 12:49:32 AM

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Nope, Ralf sux. Jarno is a good driver but Ralf sux. Constantly destroyed Sir Frank's cars. Remember Australia. Had no intentions of braking or turning going into the first corner.

ThierryHenry14 - 7/27/2007 10:16:36 PM

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I think a good 90% of you guys defending Toyota should stick to street racing, and not F1.

LexSucks - 7/30/2007 5:33:05 PM

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Yeah but BMW actually improved the Sauber team. Toyota has yet to imporve on anything. LOL!

Htay7500 - 7/28/2007 10:25:39 AM

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other news... Lewis hamilton kicks ass!!

Anti_Bangle - 7/28/2007 3:07:56 PM

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To those who say Toyota F1 started from scratch, read this from Wikipedia about Toyota F1 -

"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."

Anti_Bangle - 7/30/2007 12:57:34 PM

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They were not only accused, they were convicted.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/30/ferrari_espionage_conviction/

Let's forget about the wiki thing, the Toyota TF104 does look very much like the Ferrari F2003-GA. This is no secret to anyone who follows F1.

And your argument about the recent Ferrari_McLaren_debacle is not valid. This is because Toyota F1 bosses knowingly hired those ex-Ferrari employees because of the Ferrari material that they possessed. On the other hand, Ron Dennis and the rest of McLaren team had no idea that Mike Coughlan possessed Ferrari material.

Anti_Bangle - 7/28/2007 3:09:59 PM

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"lol toyota whould just go out and buy ferrari or somebody. like bmw did with sauber. I guess that gets you respect around here."

Toyota didn't need to buy Ferrari, Toyota already copied from Ferrari without permission.

1970toyotamarc - 7/29/2007 10:36:55 PM

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Since there is no post about Toyota's Nascar win, I will add it here. Fitting that after all this whining here about Toyota having no success in racing, they follow it up with their first Busch win. So now they have dominated Craftsman Truck, have three drivers in the top ten in Busch points, and get their first win.

I admittedly dont know much about F1. What I do know is Toyota's commitment to excellence. If they want to win in F1, they will. They're going up against mfrs that have been racing for decades. They just need some time. Some things will happen fast (Craftsman Truck, Busch), others will take more time (Nextel, F1).

Czelinski - 7/30/2007 6:48:09 AM

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Yeah, but NASCAR is hardly difficult in comparison to F1. I mean, an oval track? C'mon, no skill in going fast around that.

uscgame - 7/30/2007 7:56:31 AM

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Wierd how it doesn't take any skill but the same drivers are consistently near the top of the leader board every year...

Czelinski - 7/30/2007 2:28:29 PM

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uscgamecock,

Maybe everyone else is just shit?

BM3W - 7/30/2007 5:50:33 PM

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They are in the wrong place...

When 7 out of 11 teams are located in the UK, it says something about where the talent and engineering skills are. To compete at a top level and have a any hope of winning, you must be near it.

The only team consistently winning and not in the UK is Ferrari. And Ferrari is the only manufacturer who has raced in every F1 season since F1 was founded in 1950.

johnct - 7/30/2007 10:51:28 PM

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Because they are going to translate thier F1 success into making the IS F just like thier F1 car, an also ran.