Here comes Toyota again: projects, facilities, Trulli and that GP who never won

In the list of great unfinished things in the history of Formula 1, there is a name Toyota it will never fail. Because it was a big, unfinished business: projects, resources, structures and money, a lot of it, but they never succeeded and never won a Grand Prix. That’s why, when the Japanese decided to say goodbye at the end of the 2009many were disappointed by the name he left behind, but few were surprised.

It is not correct today to say that that story continues again, but the suggestion is certainly there. Because Toyota is back in some way, even if only for technical cooperation with Haas whose benefits and content will be assessed. However, the name is enough to spark a story that had no happy ending, but which is still intense to reproduce.

Toyota, here are the reasons for the technical support at Haas

Toyota in F1, what was missing?

Jarno Trulli’s biggest regret was not getting Toyota to win GPwhich even for Toyota went so far as to say no to Ferrari. Money question? Perhaps, but mainly it was a matter of… respect: for Jarno, the word given to a working group with which he always got on was surprisingly true important, and which he would have been glad to repay with possible influence. on his prospects and the future of Toyota to change in F1. But all the things that belong to the past that will not return are the one as a complete manufacturer who decided to make the car and the engine inside: it is difficult to say what was missing in particular (group? Thoughts? Ability?), our results were certainly not to justify continuing in one F1 now hit, like all big companies, by the 2007-2008 crisis, a shock that made the Japanese leaders decide to go back on the Formula 1 front.

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Toyota: ok start, but then…

Toyota’s futuristic project in F1, which was supposed to bring the house from the Land of the Rising Sun to excellence in the Circus, did not work. It is complicated to formulate a single reason why it did not work, also because the reason is not necessarily unique: what is certain is that Toyota’s failure in the 2000s is a warning to all the giants who intend to land. the Circus to break the bank. In short, money is not enough: it happened to Jaguar, it happened to BMW, it happened to Toyota and it happened to Hondaand this limits us only to the names of the third millennium. Speaking of Honda, the Japanese “derby” of those years was good, but not very profitable for both: two of them won a GP (and Honda did it, in Budapest 2006 with Button) and then they both ran away from the Circus.

It’s a shame, because Toyota started with some interesting ideas: it should have appeared in 2001 with a V12, then did so the following year with a 10 cylinder as required by the Federation. Test after test in 2001, then big ambitions for the first time: the first races didn’t go badly either, with points ending immediately in the first race (6th place with Mika Salo in Melbourne 2002).

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