Motor Sport December 2007

Grid it on, says Toyota

Exclusive from Tokyo

There’s not much on four wheels that Toyota doesn’t dominate, let alone do well in, but when it comes to F1, well …

Toyota Racing concluded the 2007 Formula 1 season as it started it, with a points finish, thanks to Jarno Trulli’s eighth in the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Toyota knows this isn’t enough.

Kazuo Okamoto, a Toyota executive vice president and the man responsible for all things motor sport for the most successful auto company in the world, says things are about to change.

Toyota became the world’s biggest car marker in April, but its F1 team doesn’t enjoy such pre-eminence.

The pressure on Toyota is greater than ever and Okamoto and his colleagues insist 2008 will be the year when Toyota roars out of the midfield of F1.

While the company delights in its involvement in F1 and the enjoyment that brings to people all over the world, this should not be misinterpreted as some sort of bottomless pit of money which will be squandered without the Toyota drivers standing on the podium.

“We want to win at least one race next season and we want some consistently top five finishes,” Okamoto tells me in Tokyo through a translator.

How definite is that?

“I have issued that instruction.”

Okamoto says he gets plenty of advice concerning how to boost the results of Toyota in F1, but some of doesn’t suit the Japanese auto giant.

“We need to make money from motor sport and F1 is no exception. We want to be in it because it excites people a great deal. But it’s true it is time to deliver results. It is true we need drivers.

“We are often told Toyota’s F1 team needs a powerful figurehead at the top, someone like Ron Dennis. We could bring in someone like that, but that is not our way. We prefer to focus on the team side. We will keep working on building a team and it will be successful.”

Ralf Schumacher has gone. A stray seat is up for grabs.

There’s talk another could be freed up.

Toyota, foundering in F1, needs a champion driver, one who will lead the charge.

“We need the drivers, that is for certain. It depends on what (Fernando) Alonso is doing,” says Okamoto.

Whoa there! To be perfectly clear on that, I ask Okamoto to go on record that Toyota would pull out the chequebook and make an offer for Alonso.

He won’t confirm anything like that. He simply says Alonso is a magnificent driver and like anyone else, he is the sort of elite racer any team would want.

“And we are all about building a team. We would never have it said we simply went out and bought victory.”

Then he laughs and asks me who I think Toyota should sign.

I say, through the translator, “as an Australian my heart says Mark Webber, but my head would probably go with Alonso.”

But interestingly, since then sources have said the squad has made a big money offer to the Red Bull star Webber. Perhaps Okamoto took it on board.

Realistically, Renault looks the likely place for Alonso and the expected signing of Timo Glock by Toyota would close that door on Alonso.

Glock was expected to sign with Toyota at the time of going to press. BMW Sauber confirmed the German driver had left their organisation.

Toyota earlier made clear its interest in Glock.

“Timo will no longer be driving for the BMW Sauber F1 team next year,” said team boss Mario Theissen in a statement.

“We’ve offered him the position of test driver but he has been given the opportunity to race for another team.”
Glock, 25, competed in four grands prix for the now-defunct Jordan team as a stand-in for Italian Giorgio Pantano in 2004 and scored two points with seventh place on his debut in Canada. Glock won the GP2 title this year.

Jarno Trulli said after Brazil that the eighth spot in the final GP of the year was “good for the motivation of the Toyota team and I would like to thank everybody because it has been hard, but we never gave up.

“That is the most important thing because we have to look ahead to the future, to improve the car and the performance. I believe we have the potential and I think next year we can bounce back to the front.”

Schumacher said when he finished in Brazil: “It is my last race for Toyota and sure after three years it is a bit of a shame to be leaving, but it has been a pleasure to work together with the whole team. I have enjoyed my time here at I am looking forward to seeing some of the guys for a drink in the future.”

Despite his denials that he could be shunted out and the fact he has a deal until 2009, Trulli, Schumacher, Japanese Sakon Yamamoto and Toro Rosso star Vitantonio Liuzzi are expected to test for the Spyker squad in the off-season, according to recent media reports.

The British-based outfit has been bought by Indian magnate Vijay Mallya and will be renamed Force India F1, with the cars called Force Indias. German rookie Adrian Sutil is certain to remain with the team.