Polar Opposites: Toyota Says It Left Formula 1 To Focus On Grass-Roots Racing?

Gap not really! It was F1 that brought about the many innovations in the modern engine that we see in passenger cars today!

I though Toyota left F1 for the same reason a lot of other car and motorcycle manufacturers pulled back from racing: The economy was in the pits, and they needed to cut back spending.

I was wondering why nobody said Toyota is copying BMW this time too.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they had a monstrous budget and could produce only backmarker results.

maybe it shows just how out of touch Toyota management must have been.

Toyota failed at F1 just like their performance passenger cars failed to be any type of performance benchmark. I've heard Toyota fans say that "Toyota can be successful in any area that they enter". Yeah right. That was just delusional fanboy talk because Toyota stunk up the place while they were in F1. LOL!!!

Toyota left F1 because they spent a fortune yet had dismal results.

Are there "grass roots racing" going to include Prius rallies between Whole Foods and recycling centers while clogging up the roads driving under the speed limit?

Toyota failed at F1 because they didn't hire the right people especially the management side and drivers. The TF109 in the hands of say Lewis Hamilton would have won at least 2 races at Bahrain and Belgium and Toyota might have stayed. It is very sad Toyota left when good results were very near.
Prove is in 07 they were near the bottom of championship mainly because of tyre problems. In 08 they were ahead of Williams and Redbull and in 09 their last year they almost beat Ferrari and Mclaren and badly defeated BMW. Toyota did a Honda.

JUGNU

See how people deboost you because they cannot take the fact? Pathetic isn't it?

Those aren't facts.

These are the facts:

Toyota didn't almost beat Ferrari or Mclaren's Points totals.

Toyota scored 59.5 points in 2009 while Mclaren and Ferrari scored 70 and 71 points respectively. That isn't almost beating. And besides, 2009 was the worse year that Ferrari and Mclaren has had in several years, and Toyota still couldn’t beat them! Toyota did finish 2nd in two races last year, but that was only because all the other contenders crashed out.

Toyota’s F1 cars have never been outright faster than Ferrari, or Mclaren. And currently Red Bull is in a position that toyota has never been in (winning races). Don’t try to make it seem like Toyota were competing for wins and podiums. They weren’t.

And you fail to mention one very important item. Toyota didn't win a single race in 11 seasons (over 150 races) and spent more money than any other team during that time. BMW, Williams, Red-Bull, Ferrari, and Mclaren have all won races. And with the exception of Red-Bull, they’ve all won Championships (Red Bull will get their championship this year). The best Toyota has done in the points standing during those 11 years was 4th. And if you were to average out all of Toyota’s race finishes? Toyota’s average finishing position is like 10th . They stunk up the joint and couldn’t even compete. That’s why they got out.

I’m dumbfounded when I hear people say that Toyota builds the best cars in the world. What specifically is the best about them? Toyota definitely couldn’t build the best F1 race car, they didn’t even come close.

Top Five Reasons Why Toyota Left F1:

1. Huge cost
2. Poor racing results
3. Limited F1 fan base in Toyota's biggest market (the US)
4. No (sports) cars to tie into F1 investment
5. Waste of marketing $$$$$

If you switch 1 and 2 around your list will be spot on. If they had good results they would have never left F1, regardless of cost. It's just that the costs didn't justify the results.

Lexsucks

"Toyota did finish 2nd in two races last year, but that was only because all the other contenders crashed out"

Can you please tell which main competitors crashed out from Singapore and Japanese GP where Toyota scored 2nd places.

"Don’t try to make it seem like Toyota were competing for wins and podiums. They weren’t"

Toyota were definitely competing for podiums and Wins. They scored 5 podiums in 09 and their ordinary drivers Trulli and Glock missed many more. Trulli messed 2 simple wins in Bahrain and Belgium.
You don't try to make it seem Toyota weren't competing for wins and Podiums. Toyota were just lacking star drivers and engineers and they definitely could have had more success. They never managed to hire quality people like say Adrian Newye and Vettel, Ross Brawn and Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Alonso...etc.

Anyway leave it, you will not agree.
Toyota, Honda, BMW and most of Renault(Renault sold more than 70% of their team to some investment company) left because of huge costs, financial crisis and also because of the unfavourable rules. F1 has become very little relevant to automotive industry. Very little chance to develop new real world relevant technologies. So Manufacturers left. Once F1 will stabilise with new rules, sensible budgets...etc these companies might return.

JUGNU

Jungu,

I'm not even going to bother looking up those races. I'll leave with this. Did Toyota win a race in 11 years of F1 racing? And was their foray into F1 successful? No need to answer. We know the answers already.