Toyota returns to Formula One with Haas technical partnership
THE US-owned Haas Formula One team and Toyota announced a multi-year technical partnership on Friday (Oct 11) in a move bringing Japan’s biggest carmaker back to grand prix racing for the first time since 2009.
Haas will continue to use Ferrari power units after agreeing in July to a contract extension to the end of 2028.
Haas, whose team principal Ayao Komatsu is Japanese, is seventh in the constructors’ world championship with 31 points going into their home US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, next week.
The partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing, the carmaker’s motorsport division, starts immediately with branding on the VF-24 cars driven by Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen at the Circuit of the Americas.
Toyota Gazoo Racing will become Haas’s official technical partner with both parties sharing expertise, knowledge and resources. Toyota will provide design, technical and manufacturing services.
“To have a world leader in the automotive sector support and work alongside our organisation, while seeking to develop and accelerate their own technical and engineering expertise – it’s simply a partnership with obvious benefits on both sides,” said Komatsu.
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“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 One.
“In return, we offer a platform for Toyota Gazoo Racing to fully utilise and subsequently advance their in-house engineering capabilities.”
Komatsu thanked Ferrari and their team boss Fred Vasseur for supporting the establishment of the partnership, as well as Formula One boss and former Ferrari principal Stefano Domenicali.
Gazoo Racing president Tomoya Takahashi said the partnership also aimed to “cultivate drivers, engineers and mechanics”.
Toyota is active in the world rally championship and endurance racing and has a wind tunnel at their well-equipped headquarters in Cologne, Germany, that F1 championship leaders McLaren used until their own came on stream.
Haas will have an all-new lineup next year of experienced Frenchman Esteban Ocon and British rookie Oliver Bearman, the Ferrari reserve who has raced twice already this season as a stand-in at Ferrari and Haas.
Toyota entered Formula One with their own team in 2002 but never won a race despite having one of the sport’s biggest budgets. They also provided Williams with engines from 2007 to 2009.
Domestic rivals Honda, who left Formula One in 2008 but returned as an engine maker in 2015, currently partner champions Red Bull. In 2026 they will be starting a new and exclusive relationship with Aston Martin. REUTERS
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