Toyota withdraws from Formula One

[tok-tokkie]

I am not well informed but it seems to there is a trail of failures wherever Mike Gascoyne has been. Comments?

[pipex]

Now it's the oportunity of Proton/Lotus to buy this team, and Mike Gascoyne could be the new boss hahaha.
Even MGI Ltd. is in Cologne...
But i think that in the end the "Toyota" team will close their doors.

[pipex]

@tok-tokkie

It seems that Gascoyne is a difficult guy to work with, as has been discussed before in other threads, but i don't think is only his fault. For example, reading autosport, Gascoyne left Toyota due to differences of opinion on which way development should be done. And i don't think that Gascoyne does all the work related to the car, some responsability should be on the shoulders of the rest of the teams he has worked with...

[zgred]

Even more bitter comment towards management You can find here: Toyota pulls the plug on F1 team

(...)
The key point at which many in F1 lost faith in the project was when Gascoyne was ousted in March 2006 following a fundamental difference of opinion with the top management of the team about the way the team should develop. The split was indicative of the clash of cultures between the corporate world and the motor racing fraternity. Gascoyne was the epitome of an aggressive get-up-and-go engineer who was not frightened to speak his mind in corporate circles. His arrival at the team made a significant difference and his departure was seen in F1 circles as a victory of corporate thinking.

That move sent out all the wrong signals in F1 and meant that the team had real troubles recruiting top engineers as it was clear that Gascoyne was rejected for arguing too much for what he felt was necessary. The impression being that the team was being run from Japan by people who did not fully understand what they were doing with the European management simply doing what they were told.

[sticky667]

William's should retire, his blocking Sauber's re-entrance is pathetic. He should go home and watch the telly.

Long live the Kit car F1 teams

a bit of irony here.

what do you think Williams is?

Surely the teams know much more of the behind the scenes politics than the media. Sir Frank obviously knows what he is doing, and it was quite right to block the 14th team. We only have 13 now anyways and why would he agree to split up his shares with yet another new team allowed on the grid.

[WhiteBlue]

The impression being that the team was being run from Japan by people who did not fully understand what they were doing with the European management simply doing what they were told.

I have said it for a long time. If you are a corporation and want to do your own thing you have to nominate your most competent person for the job and keep him on it for 10 years. In this job (team principal) job rotation is destructive. It is also impossible to split the job three ways. Toyota had a boss in Japan, they had a boss in Europe (Howett) and they had the poor sods (like Vasselon) who had to actually do the job at the factory.

Compare that to BMW who at least got one win out of four years in F1 and you see all the difference. There was always only one person who had the responsibility for the team as a whole. He was on the job all the time and he was in the F1 factory and the engine department every week. He also had been their motor sort boss for 10 years.

Toyota had the choice to send their "Theissen" to Europe full time or pick up a suitable individual and integrate him into their management structure. They never committed to do one of those. They had a stream of corporate straw men who rotated in and out of the the job and spend their time mostly in Japan while Howett stumbled from one embarassement to another.

[jddh1]

I must say I'm quite shocked that Toyota is withdrawing. I thought that finding a driver like Kobayashi was a boost to their challenge. However, they did need to sort out the management issues. Too many decision makers.
Really shocked.
I think this is the start of a down period in F1, where costs will adjust themselves over a few years to what it should be year after year.

[flynfrog]

[uote="ISLAMATRON"]

the budget cap would have made toyota win a race in the last 5 years?

Nope, but it would have stopped them from wasting BILLIONS in what was a lost cause. If their Budget was $50mil rather than the hundreds of Million they spent year on year I doubt they would be as concerned.

It was there money who cares what they do with it. The end result would have been the same.

The money comes from customers who buy road car and the trillions in tax payer bail outs paid to keep these car companies operating.
Anyone who is critical of the stupid way that international industry is run by coke heads in brasses ripping us all off should be concerned.[/quote]
um Toyota didn't take any bailout money care to try again?

[autogyro]

http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/200 ... nkers.html

Yanks seem to have paid in a fair bit.

[tarzoon]

As any ordinary F1 fan, I don't see the big deal? They did right: shitloads of money thrown into the bin for two pole-positions and two second places. Besides, how many fans will actually pity their departue?

It's classic boardroom engineering. And they had two options, either change (i.e. downsize) their management board or quit. They opted for the sensible option.

I just feel sorry for all those who lost their job.

[flynfrog]

http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/200 ... nkers.html

Yanks seem to have paid in a fair bit.

as much as I disagree with the cash for clunkers attempt to buy votes that was not part of the bailout. Chrysler and GM were the big takers there. At non point did Toyota directly receive money from the government.

[dp35]

Now that we know Toyota is out of F1, the question is - will someone be able to purchase the team for next to nothing, as Ross Brawn did with Honda?

It seems like it would be a lot easier for any of the new teams to acquire Toyota (or major parts of it) rather than create their own more expensive yet likely inferior car from scratch. In hindsight, it would've been wise for a new team to only "pretend" they're hard at work designing a new car of their own, while waiting like Vultures to capitalize on the Toyota exit.

USF1 seems to be doing a good job of pretending thus far. Might they be able to benefit from Toyota's departure?

What about Prodrive?

[axle]

This could have been in the main thread, but anyway.

If Qadbak arn't opportunist then I don't know who is...so there is a precedent for either a management buyout or a purchase from an as yet unknown 3rd party.

But I think WB posted a comment saying that Toyota were most likely to dissolve the team.

[hasalard]

Howett denied the possibility of selling the team today.They are willing to continue in other projects.

"Registered as the 14th of a 13-team field, Sauber is dependent on the withdrawal of a competitor to gain access to next year's championship, unless all remaining teams agree to amend the regulations and open a 14th space - in the event that the Toyota operation is taken up by a buyer and remains a competitor.

Selling the team was mentioned as an option earlier on Wednesday, but it is believed that Toyota team boss John Howett has played down that possibility.

Instead, Toyota Motorsport GmbH could live on with another project for the Japanese manufacturer, such as establishing a Le Mans Series team.

"Toyota Motor Corporation will race in various categories," the carmaker said without elaborating."

For more http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 5239.shtml

[dp35]

Interesting. If one of the new teams were to acquire all or a portion of Toyota, that would not be considered a 14th team.

Seems like an awful waste of tools, technology, & talent.

It also seems like an awful waste for the new teams to re-invent thousands of F1 specific things that Toyota will be tossing in the scrap heap. Welcome to the redundant and wasteful world of F1 I guess.