Toyota’s cautious comeback

Toyota is the world’s highest selling automobile company. It has very deep pockets. So why is it being so cautious about its return to F1 with Haas?

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The increased popularity of F1 has encouraged new car and engine companies to the sport, bolstered by the sport’s rising revenues. Audi, Ford and Honda (independent of Red Bull) will all be powering cars on the 2026 grid, with Cadillac joining a couple of years later.

However, the success rate of engine suppliers joining in F1 isn’t great. Honda struggled for several years at the start of the Hybrid era with McLaren before Red Bull. Renault recently announced their pulling the plug on their engine programme for 2026. And Audi is already seeing the problems with entering the sport with Sauber.

Haas and Toyota have announced a technical partnership/sponsorship. Toyota logos will appear on the Haas for the first time this weekend. Toyota though have ruled out an engine agreement (so far). Their caution can also be explained with their own F1 tale to tell.

In the early 2000’s both F1 and the car industry was booming. Both were seeing the gains of an increasingly globalised and free market world, with a rapidly growing Asian market. This led to Toyota to having their attempt in Formula 1, after seeing the success that Honda previously had.

The team entered in 2002 with the team based on Cologne, Germany. It meant business. The team spent big and several years later would sign up Jarno Truilli, from rivals Renault. By 2008, team was spending $445.6 million a year ($622 million in 2024 money), the highest in the sport.

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And for all that they managed fifth. In fact, after years of spending, the team hadn’t even won a race. Then came the 2008 Financial Crisis, which hit the car industry hard. Honda and BMW would pull out of sport. 2009 was Toyota’s last shot. It started off promising with a couple of podiums, but didn’t materialise into much.

The team would pull out of sport after spending many billions over 8 seasons, to get 17 podiums and no wins. After several years of bad luck, when Audi and Porsche left the series, Toyota became the dominant team winning it five times in a row (including two with Fernando Alonso).

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It’s no surprise Toyota wants to be cautious about their move back to F1. But some sort of return by the world’s highest selling car brand can only be seen as a positive for the sport and for the Haas team.

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