The new alliance between Toyota and the Haas Formula 1 team sets up the tantalising possibility of a fully backed factory Toyota team returning to F1. How likely is this in reality?
Toyota and F1, in the same statement, are usually met with terms such as underdelivering, corporate interference, and mismanagement, amongst others. Its time in the sport in the early 2000s is rightfully seen as a spectacular failure.
The Japanese manufacturer, on paper, had all the ingredients to succeed in the cutthroat world of F1. With a near limitless budget, star drivers like Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, and technical expertise from the likes of Mike Gascoyne as Technical Director, the team could and should have become a powerhouse.
But results never came, infuriating the board, who, using the same axe as Renault, began interfering from the start, making sweeping structure changes, creating the all too familiar spectre of instability on a yearly basis.
Citing the global financial crisis that gripped the world in 2009 as the reason for its withdrawal alongside a lack of competitiveness, Toyota left the sport in 2009 with a record of no wins, 13 podium finishes and three pole positions in 140 starts. But now, Toyota is back in the F1 paddock, and not in the way that many predicted.
Detail hidden behind the ‘technical partnership’
The car giant will take an active role in Haas’ F1 programme, offering manufacturing, technical and design expertise and a driver development programme. This is one of the more exciting motorsport collaborations in recent memory.
Inspiration has clearly been taken from Alfa Romeo’s title and technical sponsorship deal with Sauber from 2019 to 2022. That involved technical help but primarily promoted the Italian car company in F1 without it actually having a presence.
Toyota and Haas’ technical partnership goes much deeper than a splash of paint on the rear wing. Haas has the potential to learn from one of the automotive sector’s most iconic brands.
Its experience in FIA WEC and WRC will undoubtedly assist Haas, but F1 cars vastly differ from the series in which it currently excels. Toyota GAZOO Racing (TGR) Company President Tomoya Takahashi elaborated on staff and engineer collaboration, focusing on aerodynamic design work.
“TGR engineers and mechanics will also join MoneyGram Haas F1 Team at the motorsports pinnacle of F1. Specifically, they will participate in F1 racing car aerodynamics development by utilizing TGR’s monozukuri (manufacturing) capabilities, which MoneyGram Haas F1 Team has highly evaluated, and design and manufacture carbon-fiber parts in simulated extreme operational environments.”
The might of Toyota assisting with manufacturing vital components for car evolution will vastly improve Haas’ current processes. The team incorporates multiple components sourced from Ferrari as part of its original deal with the Italian marque. The Scuderia will continue to provide power units to Haas without impacting that agreement.
Questions are raised when looking at how Toyota aims to integrate itself on race weekends. In the same statement, Takahashi highlights ‘strategic planning’ without elaborating.
“Through this partnership, TGR aims to learn MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s strength of data utilization, such as the know-how for sharing the vast amount of data collected during races with various locations around the world, immediately analyzing it, and promptly utilizing it in a race’s strategic planning.”
While this may read well as a press release, it essentially amounts to analysing vast quantities of data and planning races more effectively. However, there is more to this statement than meets the eye, and its coy nature could be hiding a major development.
The fact that TGR staff will be joining Haas’ F1 operations is an intriguing aspect of this deal. Essentially, TGR engineers will be integrated into Haas’ in-season development of upgrades. The fact that the new team members will also be assisting with analysing race data suggests heavy integration.
This is deeper than a standard technical partnership. Toyota has successfully negotiated the complete assimilation of its staff into Haas. This is a genius move, allowing Toyota to gain a wealth of experience and expertise in F1 away from the spotlight.
Is a full comeback on the cards?
A partnership of this scale can easily be seen as the first step in running a factory-based F1 team. Buying into Haas makes sense as Toyota would already have the expertise and people power from an existing operation.
Laying the groundwork has begun, whether intentionally or accidentally. Already the largest car manufacturer in the world, the exposure to F1’s vast global audience will catapult its marketability to new levels, whether it continues with Haas or chooses to go it alone.
A major stumbling block almost eliminates this theory – the power unit. If Toyota wants to be a factory-based operation, a V6 turbo hybrid is needed. No new manufacturer has entered the sport since Honda’s initial disaster in 2015 with McLaren. Renault is winding up its programme at the end of 2025 after a decade-long battle to find performance.
The immensely complex nature of the power units requires multiple years of preparation to understand and refine, with dyno work needed within the first year of conception. If this is being planned, work will likely have just begun, ruling out the car manufacturer having its own engine realistically until at least 2028. Toyota itself has confirmed it has no plans for a power unit at this time.
In the press conference announcing the partnership, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda (Morizo) gave a speech outlining the deal with revelations that, when looking deeper, add fuel to the fire of a potential comeback. Toyoda made the original infamous decision to pull out of F1 in 2009, he said he did not regret the decision.
“…I’m the person who quit F1. So I think that drivers were never able to frankly talk about it in front of me. It was like there was always this inhibiting atmosphere in our pit…that said, with the media watching my every step, I dare to add that I still believe my decision as the president of Toyota to withdraw from F1 was not wrong.”
The President wanted to dampen the mood of a potential comeback, so he openly asked the media not to call it Toyota’s “full return” to F1, clearly aware of the details behind Toyota’s technical partnership with Haas.
“Please make sure that tomorrow’s headlines don’t read: ‘Toyota Finally Returns to F1.’ Rather, it would be great to see headlines and articles that inspire Japanese children to dream of the possibility that they, too, could one day drive the world’s fastest cars.”
What is certain, however, is the Chairman has changed his view and outlook on the potential benefits of an F1 project and, crucially, how it is managed. Rewind the clock a few years, and this would have been unthinkable, even a basic sponsorship deal, let alone a technical partnership would have been laughed out of the boardroom.
Is Toyota doomed to fail again?
The Toyota of 2024 is vastly different from that of 2009. TGR does not operate with the noose of a corporate board hanging around its neck; it is free to get on with racing. It has very much learned its lesson from the nadir of its failed F1 project.
While every major manufacturer in F1 has to report to the board, the interaction between the two is kept to a high level, with staff on the ground having little interaction. Operating the polar opposite approach in its original F1 tenure, every aspect of how Toyota operates in motorsport carries much less corporate weight.
Back in the early 2000s, however, Toyota forced a way of working onto its team called “The Toyota Way”, a corporate decision-making process that was painfully slow and not suited to F1. Critical decisions took far too long to finalise or implement, resulting in staff constantly hitting brick walls and the team falling behind on the upgrade trajectory.
Technical Director Mike Gascoyne discovered upon his arrival that he had very little power. Not willing to conform to “The Toyota Way”, he could not make the changes needed and left by mutual consent at the end of 2006, just three years before the board pulled the plug.
While “The Toyota Way” is still used today, the company does not mention it on any of its race sites; instead, it refers to the “Toyota Gazoo Racing pyramid.”
The Toyota Gazoo Racing pyramid is a tiered ecosystem which ensures that top-level motorsport know-how actually filters down into the production vehicles that you can buy in the showroom.
This approach vastly differs from the slow and cumbersome one of the early 2000s. As F1 enters a new era, it can be safely predicted that Haas will not be held back by an outdated working method suited to boardrooms. Instead, it looks set to thrive and drive innovation for Haas, a minnow compared to its rivals, let alone a leviathan like Toyota.
The sleeping giant remains in its slumber – for now
Given the embarrassing nature of its withdrawal in 2009, Toyota’s strategy of dipping its toes in the water is a wise approach. It gets a foot back into the lucrative world of F1 that goes beyond sponsorship, has an influence on driver signings and strategy, and learns the immensely complex aero rules that would have likely scuppered if gone alone now or in 2026.
A Toyota works team back on the grid for the first time since the early 2000s is a tantalising prospect, with the all ingredients to succeed. For now, this seems unlikely. But given Haas CEO Gene Haas’ occasional wavering faith in his F1 operation, he may have just found the easiest get-out solution possible.
2025 will be an interesting season. Staff assimilations will be well underway, drivers selected for the new programme and technical collaboration at an advanced stage. Haas could make a significant jump up the order next season. Whether its new partner is content with being the sidekick act rather than the feature presentation will make for intriguing viewing.
