Toyota confirmed F1 exit on Wednesday

Toyota Motor Corporation confirmed officially on Wednesday its decision to pull out of formula one with immediate effect.

“Based on the current economic environment, we realise we have no choice but to withdraw,” said the Japanese carmaker’s president Akio Toyoda at a news conference in Tokyo.

Toyota quit announcement to be made shortly

Toyota’s decision to quit formula one immediately will be made public at 5pm Tokyo time (8am GMT).

2009 team driver Timo Glock is tipped to jump ship to be Robert Kubica’s teammate at Renault next year, and his manager Hans Bernd Kamps said he did not know if the rumours about Toyota’s exit are true.

But he told Bild newspaper: “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

It is believed the decision to withdraw was taken some time ago rather than spontaneously, and was rubber-stamped at a board meeting in Japan earlier on Wednesday.

Talks with an Asian buyer of the Cologne based outfit may already be taking place.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone told the Daily Telegraph that Toyota’s decision to withdraw would be a breach of the 2012 Concorde Agreement.

“It’s signed by Toyota Motor Company so I very much doubt they would not go through with something they have already signed,” he said.  “They are not the sort of people to back out of a deal like that.”

Asked whether legal action would be likely, he answered: “I have no idea.  It’s not the sort of thing we do is it?”

While yet another blow to F1, the news would be very good for BMW-Sauber, whose new owners Qadbak were waiting for a confirmed 2010 team to withdraw in order to gain entry to next year’s grid.

“Another team pulling out is the easiest way (to be in F1) from our perspective,” team boss Mario Theissen said in Abu Dhabi last weekend.

 Toyota to announce f1 pull-out

Toyota Motor Corporation will announce on Wednesday its decision to pull out of formula one with immediate effect. Citing sources with prior knowledge of the news, multiple Japanese media reports carried the story, including the major daily Mainichi Shimbun as well as the Tokyo based news agency Kyodo.

A extraordinary board meeting is scheduled to formalise the decision, with president Akio Toyoda to front a news conference in Tokyo immediately afterwards.

With a team based in Cologne, Germany, Toyota entered the sport at the beginning of 2002, but in eight seasons and 139 grands prix failed to win a race.

Amid the slump in new car sales, the carmaker has forecast a multi-billion yen and euro loss for the current financial year.

Toyota’s Japanese peer Honda pulled out of F1 at the end of last year, and the Japanese tyre supplier Bridgestone will leave the sport at the end of its contract in 2010.

Toyota spokespeople were not confirming nor denying the news at the time of publication.

source: GMM