Toyota Won't Sell Team a la Honda

If any of you were hoping that the 2010 championship would be won by the team that rises out of Toyota’s ashes—and, hey, there’s precedent for that now — it is time to shelve your optimism.

Toyota team boss—former, I guess—John Howett scuttles those ideas (with a little opening left) in a Times piece .

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In Cologne, there was continuing gloom over Toyota’s sudden exit, which was announced in Tokyo on Wednesday, with the likelihood that many people will lose jobs as the company reorganises itself to focus on other areas of motor sport apart from Formula One.

There have been reports that Toyota may try to sell the team as a whole, so that it could continue in Formula One, or that John Howett, the team president, might try to lead a Ross Brawn-style buyout.

However, Howett told The Times yesterday that both of these options had already been considered by senior managers in Japan. “I think it has already been discussed and rejected,” Howett said of a possible sale. “Maybe these ideas can be reopened but, at the moment, it would appear not.”

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Also, I don’t think F1B wrapped this up—but the Toyota exit announcement was very emotional. Tears, apologies, the whole deal. Here’s the Times take ; elsewhere I saw reports of the president breaking down into tears during the announcement.

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Bowing to the cameras in Tokyo, Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota and scion of the founding Toyoda family, apologised for the miserable performance of the team.

“This was a difficult but inevitable decision,” said Mr Toyoda. “Since last year with the worsening economic climate, we have been wrestling with the question of whether to press on in Formula One. Now we are exiting Formula One completely. I apologise to Toyota’s many fans for not being able to achieve the results we had intended to achieve.”

[snip]

Toyota also apologised publicly to its sponsors: it is understood that the company did not warn them in advance that it was about to quit. A spokesman for Panasonic, the largest sponsor of Toyota’s F1 team, said that it “respected” Toyota’s decision.

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I suspect the phones of Panasonic and others have been ringing off the hook. They must be sick of Gasgyone’s leaving his cell number by now.

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