Toyota has returned to Formula 1.
According to an announcement from Haas, the team has entered into a “multi-year agreement” with TOYOTA GAZOO, the motorsport division of Toyota, on a technical partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, the two entities will “share expertise and knowledge, as well as resources.”
TOYOTA GAZOO branding will also appear on Haas F1’s cars, starting with next week’s United States Grand Prix in Austin.
“I’m hugely excited that MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing have come together to enter into this technical partnership,” stated Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu. “To have a world leader in the automotive sector support and work alongside our organization, while seeking to develop and accelerate their own technical and engineering expertise – it’s simply a partnership with obvious benefits on both sides. The ability to tap into the resources and knowledge base available at TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, while benefiting from their technical and manufacturing processes, will be instrumental in our own development and our clear desire to further increase our competitiveness in Formula 1. In return we offer a platform for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing to fully utilize and subsequently advance their in-house engineering capabilities.”
The team’s current relationship with Ferrari — Haas is a Ferrari customer team, and they use their power units as well as other technical components — will continue.
“I’m naturally pleased that we’ve had the support of the likes of Formula 1 and our long-term partner, Scuderia Ferrari – who we announced our further continuation with earlier in the season, in the formation of this new technical partnership – designed to achieve continued success in our Formula 1 endeavors,” continued Komatsu. “Together with Gene Haas, I’d specifically like to thank Stefano Domenicali (CEO – Formula 10 and Fred Vasseur (Team Principal – Scuderia Ferrari) on that front, and with Toyota I’d like to thank Akio Toyoda (Chairman – Toyota Motor Corporation), Tomoya Takahashi (President – GAZOO Racing Company) and Masaya Kaji (Project Manager – GAZOO Racing Company). Everyone at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team is looking forward to the collaborative results of this new relationship, we can’t wait to get started and fulfil our combined ambitions.”
“We are pleased to announce that MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing have concluded a basic agreement to enter a technical partnership such as Haas vehicle development. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Gene Haas, Mr. Ayao Komatsu, Mr. Stefano Domenicali (CEO – Formula 1), Mr. Fred Vasseur (Team Principal – Scuderia Ferrari), and all our existing partners of the team for their exceptional cooperation and understanding in this collaboration,” said Tomoya Takahashi, President of GAZOO Racing Company. “By competing alongside MoneyGram Haas F1 Team at the pinnacle of motorsports, we aim to cultivate drivers, engineers, and mechanics while strengthening the capabilities of MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, and we desire to contribute to motorsports and the automotive industry.”
In a media roundtable following the announcement, Komatsu asserted that the technical partnership will enable Haas to be more “competitive” in the F1 midfield.
“We are the smallest team on the grid and we are lacking certain resources and hardware capability to understand certain things,” he told media following the announcement. “In terms of being more competitive in the midfield, we are looking for somebody who can give us more resource and [manpower] and also have the hardware and the know-how to use that hardware. Toyota Gazoo Racing gives exactly that. They have a great facility in Cologne so we’ll be able to utilise that.
“They are looking for that latest F1 know-how and skillset which we have,” added Komatsu. “We don’t have their facilities, we don’t have the number of people, their resource.”
The Haas boss emphasized that the technical partnership with TOYOTA GAZOO will supplement, and not replace, Haas’ current arrangement with Ferrari.
“Our partnership with Toyota is not to replace the Ferrari partnership,” he said. “The Ferrari-Haas partnership is the foundation and it’s always going to be the foundation. This partnership is not to take away from it, but actually enhance that fundamental partnership with Ferrari.
“We’ve been completely transparent with the Ferrari management, of course, from the early stage of this discussion, so we both have a clear understanding of what engagement we have in which areas with TGR and how we need to protect the IP [intellectual property] of each company.”
Toyota’s return to F1 has been rumored for a while now, with reporting from the great F1 journalist Sándor Mészáros back in July indicating such a relationship between Toyota and Haas was in the works.
Now that deal has arrived, and we wait to see just how quickly it can help Haas charge up the F1 grid.
