Formula One news

Toyota came close to pulling out of F1

The Toyota team came extremely close to pulling the plug on Formula One, it has been revealed, with the Japanese car manufacturer deciding at the very last moment to continue; this is partly due to the fact that main sponsor Panasonic wished to remain in Formula One.

The upcoming season will become Toyota's eighth, and the team has set itself high expectations as the board wishes to see the team win its first race this season. "We must win," Toyota chairman Tadashi Yamashina said. "I'm sure of our team's potential to win an F1 title, after watching the final test on Thursday. Our team is definitely better than last year, whose best performance was a runner-up finish.

"We have competed on the F1 circuit over the past seven years, which I believe has helped to invigorate our company and contributed to the sales of our products. I stressed again and again in the company's executive board meetings that there was no way we should pull out, although we have to drastically cut our costs.

"Obviously our negative business reports did cause some doubt, so I was extremely happy that Panasonic decided to renew its contract with us even though they also had some financial troubles of their own; their understanding of what we are doing allowed us to keep racing."

Yamashina concluded: "An association of F1 executives (FOTA) has been set up under the leadership of Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, and all the teams have worked very hard to drastically cut their expenditure."

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