Toyota “gradually moving” towards full-scale F1 return

Toyota is now “progressively shifting” in direction of a full-scale return to System 1 after its technical partnership with Haas started in 2024, says the director of its sportscar and rallying squad.

The Haas-Toyota alliance kicked off within the closing phases of final season, with the Japanese firm’s branding showing on the American squad’s vehicles and equipment, plus the 2 sides working collectively to start out Haas’s first Testing of Earlier Vehicles (TPC) improvement programme and constructing of a brand new F1 simulator on the staff’s Banbury base.

However when the deal was introduced final October, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s director of world motorsport, Masaya Kaji, mentioned there was “no plan” for the manufacturer to either build its own F1 engine or re-enter as a works team – a standing it held between 2002 and 2009.

Along with this, the corporate at all times firmly said that its F1 hyperlinks with Haas prolonged solely to serving to its engineers be taught the championship’s processes by working with the squad and supply a pathway for one its drivers to presumably compete in grand prix racing.

However in an interview with Autosport after it was confirmed that Toyota World Endurance Championship driver Ryo Hirakawa has joined Alpine as a reserve driver for 2025 – with the aim of someday racing in F1 – Kaji revealed a change in Toyota’s intent relating to an F1 return of considerably larger depth.

“We’re, in fact, learning the applied sciences for 2026 and even present applied sciences,” mentioned Kaji, a buddy of Haas staff principal Ayao Komatsu. “I really feel we’re progressively shifting in that path.”

However Kaji’s extra feedback recommend any larger F1 dedication from Toyota would nonetheless be a number of years away – taking it effectively into the period the place the championship’s simplified V6 turbo hybrid engines shall be racing.

“We’re not at a stage the place we might redirect all our sources there [to a full F1 return],” he mentioned. “What occurs after 2030 continues to be unsure. We’re engaged on varied new applied sciences, so whether or not our vector aligns with F1 stays to be seen.”

Kaji additionally mentioned, “if we had our personal staff, we may select which drivers to place within the automobile”.

“In that sense, it could certainly carry us nearer to placing drivers in F1,” he added. “However realistically, we’ve got to judge how a lot cash and what number of employees members can be required to make that occur.

“That’s why I don’t assume we’re on the stage of claiming, ‘Let’s begin a staff instantly.’

“For now, constructing partnerships, like with Haas, and dealing with varied groups is what’s necessary.

“We’re not in a stage to leap over these steps. We have to give attention to doing what we ought to be doing proper now.”