Tech & Biz

Toyota Motor to quit F1 racing after 2010 season

by Edmund Jenks | November 3, 2009 at 08:20 pm

658 views | 18 Recommendations | 4 comments

Here is a shocker ... Toyota Motor Company follows the lead of Honda and gives up on Formula 1. That's right, Toyota will compete for only one more season and focus on building hybrids!

Toyota Motor Corp. /quotes/comstock/!7203 (JP:7203 3,570, -90.00, -2.46%) /quotes/comstock/13*!tm/quotes/nls/tm (TM 78.75, -0.32, -0.41%) is set to withdraw from its involvement in Formula One racing at the end of the 2010 season, in an effort to slash costs as it grapples with the global auto slump, according to a media reports Wednesday. The automaker will quit the racing series because it believes it won't return to profitability for another year, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported Wednesday. Toyota's participation in the sport began in 2002. Toyota will also reportedly consider selling the its F1 racing team.

F1 may become a garage sport as opposed to a manufacturers sport if this trend keeps up.

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Edmund Jenks

flagged this story as Breaking

at 20:29 on November 3rd, 2009

Edmund Jenks, thanks for getting this story out so quickly. It will now show up on the home page for four hours. If new developments justify it, I'll renew this flag for another cycle.

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hidflect

at 21:19 on November 3rd, 2009

F1 is dead. Neither I nor anyone I know has watched it in the last 5 years. Greed and fixing killed it. It may be showing some ramp up at the moment with its entry into developing markets but I'll bet its core base numbers are way way down. We'll never know. F1 is so corrupt they'll never reveal the real figures of what goes on.