TEAM MIGHT LIVE ON - BUT NOT WITH ITS BACKING

+ Click to Enlarge ALL OVER FOR TOYOTA F1 The Japanese mega-motormaker has announced that it is pulling out of Formula 1 because the sport has become too expensive in the current econmic climate.Image: AFP

November 4, 2009
By Shingo Ito

Toyota has officially become the latest automaker to quit Formula 1 in response to the economic crisis and its exit comes only days after tyre-maker Bridgestone quit.

Toyota said its decision reflected "the current severe economic realities".

The company said it "intends to do its best to find a solution" for the team, which has never won a GP since its words here.2002 F1 debut and finished this season fifth in the Constructors' championship.

Honda and BMW have already left F1 to cope with the credit crunch. Toyota's withdrawal leaves no Japanese automaker in the high-octane sport and, in some quarters at least, raises fresh fears for its future.

Though F1 attracts millions of viewers the hundreds of millions of dollars a year bill for running a team means it has become an unaffordable luxury for cash-strapped Japanese manufacturers.

The sport has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years, including financial troubles, a Renault race-fixing scandal and a threat by a clutch of teams earlier this year to form a breakaway series.

Toyota, facing a collapse in car sales worldwide, has already pulled out of hosting the Japanese GP at its Fuji Speedway in 2010.

On Monday, Bridgestone said it would end its contract as the official tyre supplier to F1 - joining an exodus of Japanese auto firms from world motor sports. Honda announced in December its withdrawal from F1, selling its team to former principal Ross Brawn - reportedly for just one British pound.

WORLD RALLY CHAMPS HIT TOO

Brawn driver Jenson Button of Britain has since been crowned F1 champion and the team is at the top of the F1 Constructers' standings.

Suzuki and Subaru, meanwhile, have withdrawn from the World Rally championship, Kawasaki has quit MotoGP and Mitsubishi is quitting the Dakar Rally despite a dozen victories.

Mamoru Kato, an auto analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Centre, explained: "Toyota launched into F1 to boost sales in Europe but the impact appears to have been smaller than expected."

Toyota overtook US rival General Motors in 2008 as the world's top-selling automaker but it fell into the red for the first time in March 2009 and expects another loss this year. Plants have been shut down and thousands of jobs shed as the once "everything keeps going right, tra la" company tries to beat the crisis. - AFP