YOU CAN'T ALWAYS BUY SUCCESS! The Story of Toyota in Formula One (2002-2009)

Toyota spent a lot of money. A LOT of money. They had budgets above Ferrari, McLaren and Williams at the time and could not muster a single win. Few second places but never the win.
So then, how bad did they do in the grand scheme of things? And what reasons, if any, were there for their underachieving in the sport? Let's have a look.
Enjoy! And remember to like and subscribe for more!
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[@AidanMillward]

Inb4 Initial D is an anime not a cartoon. Didn't ask I also love the Loeb cigarette emoji...

[@LoganHunter82]

Oh, this is gonna be good 🍿

[@F2007KR]

Reeeeeee

[@palm92]

*Galaxy Brain* Anime is a Japanese Cartoon, and Cartoons are Western Anime.

[@AidanMillward]

@@palm92

[@titanent.6897]

The power of initial d is strong

[@Moray2023]

Fun fact, if Massa gets Alonso kicked out of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Toyota will get their first win as an engine manufacturer 14 years after they left.

[@gerarduspoppel2831]

That jaguar was awesome

[@F1-Passion]

“IF”

[@petouser]

Isn't Massas aim to get Singapore removed from the championship standings? It doesn't help to just get Renault DQ.

[@adamhousden6349]

​@@gerarduspoppel2831🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@gerarduspoppel2831]

@@adamhousden6349 . What's so funny?

[@ilovedriving8288]

You should have mentioned the 2010 tf110, the car that gets 2 tenths quicker every year it never raced

[@AidanMillward]

Bit like those mid 80s turbos that gain 50hp every ten years or so.

[@ryukenhondaraiden]

Last time a heard the BMW turbo had 1600 bhp.🤣

[@mbgmadbull1141]

I heard it was at 1700 last time so that checks out for the turbskis.

[@AidanMillward]

@@mbgmadbull1141 when I did my video on the turbos I changed the figure twice within twenty seconds to play up to that whole thing. Went over peoples heads but I was proud of the gag anyway. 😅

[@mbgmadbull1141]

@@AidanMillward give it another 3 years and it might hit 1750 XD

[@sambanner1889]

I like the idea of Heidfeld going to Toyota reliable and definitely had enough about him to win races shame he never did. Funny in 2002 if they had Ralph and Jarno everyone would of gone wow that's a strong pairing as they were in there prime then.

[@danesorensen1775]

And then they went to NASCAR (with the Camry, of all things), and basically dominated - mostly because manufacturer teams weren't allowed so they couldn't interfere. I wonder what might've happened if they'd just come onboard Arrows as a sponsor and/or engine supplier?

[@thomasg2488]

The short of it, Toyota wanted it their way and refused to hire someone that would say “you’re fucking doing it wrong, get over yourself, this how F1 works.”

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

They did hire those people! They then just sacked them for saying it....

[@Minardimaniac]

Toyota is also a major reason why Mercedes bought experienced Brawn/Honda/BAR outfit instead of doing it the same way with a own team based in germany.

[@mikulitsi1819]

Never would've guessed that Toyota used ridiculous amount of money for F1 based on their results until I heard about the money usage last year

[@mark4lev]

They aren’t honest about what it cost. Maybe close to $10 billion

[@nickwall2497]

Ferrari have been proving you can't always buy success for 73 years 😂😂

[@privateinformation2960]

Or that sacking talent because they rightly describe a car as complete shit will get you anywhere.

[@McLarenMercedes]

"When you look at Ferrari from the outside you wonder why they don't win the title every single year. When you look at Ferrari from the inside you wonder how they even won titles at all." - Niki Lauda

[@joshuafrancis1959]

I think you forgot to mention the screaming V10’s from early 2000’s

[@catmando7262]

If only they had spent the money on the catering.

[@TheSt1092]

For the the TF105 was Toyota's best F1 car. Also the main reason Toyota pushed back their entry 2001 to 2002 was because they had planned to enter with a V12 engine ( and had even began developing one) only for the FIA to make 3.0 litre V10s mandatory from 2000 meaning they had to start all over again with the engine.

[@AidanMillward]

Did you watch the whole video?

[@TheSt1092]

@@AidanMillward Yep I did.

[@AidanMillward]

@@TheSt1092 just a bit weird you repeated something I said in the video is all.

[@timothysperisen2088]

Wasnt there also a 2010 car that was supposed to have the best aero values which never ran?

[@artoodiitoo]

toyoootaa, lets go away

[@tesseract_uk]

similar story to Prost GP. French/ Japanese nationalism over competence

[@wiegraf9009]

If it were about Japanese nationalism they wouldn't have had operations in Germany!

[@hugoagogo9435]

Hasn’t a bit more money than allowed bought red bull success recently.

[@TheSt1092]

Fun fact : Toyota tried to hire Kimi Raikkonen for 2010 after left Ferrari (the first time). Kimi said no and that helped make up Toyota's mind to pull the plug. Also didn't the failed Stefan GP project try to buy the car Toyota was developing for 2010 when it pulled out?

[@AidanMillward]

Yep. Pirelli used those cars for testing instead.

[@TheSt1092]

I thought they used a re-liveried 2009 Toyota for Pirelli tests? @@AidanMillward

[@chlcrk]

​@@AidanMillward There a plan to do a video about the Stefan Grand Prix stuff? I heard a lot about it, plus the guy kept trying to get a way into F1 years later, but an explanation of the whole farce could be worth exploring

[@RBenjo21]

The story Mike Gascoyne gave to F1 Racing was that he made a snap decision to bring Ralf in at Australia 2006 under the safety car, and it got them a podium. He was sacked on Monday for making a snap decision.

[@jackmiller-johnston8689]

Because snap decisions aren't part of the "Toyota Way". God, I hate this stuck-up brand

[@aslc2547]

Interesting, Gascoyne totally knows what he is doing. More fool Toyota !

[@bumblebity2902]

Nope, the real reason was tyre supplier tf106 was build with Michelin in the mind, but at the last minute corporation decide to use their compatriot Bridgestone tyres.

[@nathancoleman8792]

There is a really interesting story about Toyota in 2010. Toyota build a 2010 car but never raced it because the withdraw in 2009. But the story is that when the people who built the car and saw the 2010 grid they believe that there car was just as fast as red bull. Toyota had also given kobayashi a contract for 2010.

[@ivaneurope]

I think the higher up's in Japan pulled the plug on the entire thing as they saw little in return compared to all the investment they've poured. And don't think the 2010 would have been on the same level as Red Bull, Ferrari or McLaren, but at best would've been IMO a solid midfield runner. Which is why Zoran Stefanovic wanted to get his hands on it so bad as it would've been a sure ticket for scoring points (Stefanovic was also on the hunt to get the abysmal MasterCard Lola cars in 1997, but nothing came of it). However, I think the other new teams - Campos/HRT, Virgin and Lotus, protested which in turn Stefan GP was denied entry by the FIA.

[@nathancoleman8792]

@@ivaneurope Its hard to believe that Toyota would of been at front as there were a poorly run team on and off the track, but pascal vesselon who is still technical director of the wec team said that there car was very similar to red bull and they had severe upgrades planned too and considering how strong Toyota return to sports cars was just a few years later it could be true.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

​@@ivaneuropeThey pulled the plug because of the huge global financial crash. They & Honda had the choice of sacking workers and racing in F1 or sacking less workers and pulling out of F1. Same with BMW a year later.

[@tombardsley3081]

@@OsellaSquadraCorsebmw pulled out the same season as Toyota did. Yes the team in 2010 was still called bmw Sauber but that was because they had missed the deadline to change the name. There was nothing bmw about the car in 2010 as the car had a Ferrari engine.

[@elta6241]

The most hilarious part of this whole farce was when Michael Schumacher wore a Toyota t-shirt at the end of 2003 I think it was. There have always been persistent rumours that Toyota thought they had signed Michael Schumacher and not Ralf.

[@benediktwindisch2778]

I loved the variety of F1 cars and engines in the early to mid 2000s. Shame it didn't work for Toyota but also Jaguar and Prost. Their liveries were cool

[@Commanderraf]

Jaguar had (what I think is) one of the best liveries ever. Classic yet stunning. Even the red logos of HSBC or Beck's looked great in that sea of deep green. Another one of my favourites was Stewart. That simple tartan line made all the difference. Too bad those teams didn't achieve their goals and went under.

[@MrNegativecreep07]

Prost AP03 is in with a good shout of being the most beautiful F1 car of all time

[@ibex485]

Jackie Stewart had that particular tartan specially commissioned for the team, and trousers & cap to match. He also commissioned a particular colour paint for the car - adding a bit of ochre to the white, to make it look better on TV.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Toyota would have probably been better off supplying engines instead of being a works team.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

​@@Commanderraf They didn't go under, Stewart became Jaguar after Ford bought the whole team; they then sold it to Red Bull and... They improved it. A lot. Prost did go under, but Toyota didn't.

[@samuelgt2811]

Fun fact: Toyota wanted to enter in 2001 with a V12 engine, but teams rejected and the V12 engine was banned which caused Toyota to miss that season. The Race did a Bring Back V10's episode on Toyota's year on the sidelines which gives a good insight on the TF101 testing program

[@ethanweeter2732]

Which is odd when Toyota won’t put a V8 even on a passenger car of any kind hardly.

[@jsquared1013]

@@ethanweeter2732 they have some quite well-regarded V8s that have been in numerous models of passenger car, they just all carried the Lexus name in the US.

[@GeneralCodeBlue]

​@@jsquared1013Toyota also are the only Japanese manufacturer to have a production V12 car. The 2nd gen Century.

[@henrikkitahvanainen9276]

Salo said that Toyota hired people from their rally project but nobody from F1 he was The only one WHO had F1 experince. Salo would Have Been The one to win.

[@MrSniperfox29]

Toyota also proved that just because X works in Y formula, it won't automatically work in F1

[@AidanMillward]

Maybe if they had no competition like in lmp1 they’d have won trolllolololololol

[@ibex485]

xD Funny, and accurate.

[@bumblebity2902]

Because of Toyota way. Senior management doesn't try to understand how F1 and its politics works.

[@halofreak1990]

@@bumblebity2902and they're not the only team that suffered from that. A more recent example is Alpine.

[@bumblebity2902]

@@halofreak1990 Another coroprate factory who has Renault way and involves people in the decision making which doesn't have clue how F1 works and set unrealistic goals. All factory team in 2000s expect Ferrari suffers the same outcome and also Renault 2020s

[@ibex485]

I think at the time Toyota switching to Bridgestone for 2006 was announced as being for commercial reasons, because they did a deal to use Bridgestone tyres on their road cars. But I wonder if they were actually given the boot by Michelin. There are claims that at the 2005 US GP Toyota were running the tyres under Michelin's minimum pressure, contrubuting to the failures. (Other teams were said to be doing the same, but Toyota allegedly pushed the pressures even lower and didn't follow the other teams who promptly raised them after first practice when the dangers became apparent.)

[@palm92]

I’d say the 2009 car was probably pretty good. The stillborn 2010 car was evidently excellent but who knows really.

[@mtludo]

Da Matta used to be really vocal about the car saying that the main problem was the suspension and that Gascoygne didn't believed it, investing mainly in aero. And you can see in that yoyo style performances from track to track that mechanical grip was always a problem (monaco, monza). They've designed cars consistently without acknowledging drivers and engineers feedback, if you weren't in a hierarchical status...

[@nickshaw3619]

This is basically the same problem that modern Renault has been grappling with: you cannot run an F1 team from a corporate boardroom. You hire skilled, smart people, hand over the checkbook, and let them hire Alonso, or you get used to watching other people win.

[@allgomesareevil6121]

Fun fact that I heard Ossi Oikarienen tell on the Finnish F1 broadcast who was race engineer to Mika Salo, Alan later Jarno Trulli at Toyota. "If there was not smoke coming from the engine we would have to call it an electrical problem... even though it was an engine blow out"

[@simonkevnorris]

That sounds like the old joke about the Alfas having an electric problem as a piston went through the engine block and knocked off the alternator!

[@allgomesareevil6121]

@simonkevnorris ...and this was because they had customer teams, and it would be bad for future sales to other teams

[@jsquared1013]

There was a race, can't remember if it was F1 (I want to say it was as I think the commentator was Martin Brundle) where during the race a car had a noticeable engine failure, smoke out the back and all that (not a ton, but enough to be easily noticeable), and later on the pit reporter relayed to the commentary box that a team representative had cited "oil pressure issues" as the cause for the retirement. Commentator said something along the lines of "well I can see how they'd have an oil pressure issue, considering all the oil left the engine through a big hole in the side of the block:

[@stewartbailey1653]

What Toyota should have done is go into a collaboration with an existing team. They could have supplied, for example, Arrows, who had the experience of designing cars already but never had a decent budget a works collaboration could have brought. To try and do the whole package from the get go was a step to far.

[@stinkyroadhog1347]

Imagine an Arrows-Toyota with backing from Toyota as well with Frentzen and Bernoldi in 2002? That would've scored points regularly!

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

The reason for that was, Honda! Not kidding... Because Honda came back as a works engine supplier, Toyota at board level (and they made this their official position in press releases, still available online) decided that they would not get sufficient credit for succeeding as an engine supplier and doing "the same" as Honda had done and were looking to do again. Instead, Toyota had to build the whole car and engine, themselves, no Jordan, no BAR - no Lola (as Honda's 1967 win as a chassis was actually designed and built by Lola) - they had to do 'more'. All pride and hubris.

[@stewartbailey1653]

@@OsellaSquadraCorse and you know what they say about pride, it comes before a fall. They could have done the same as Honda did, supply an existing team for a few years and then take them over. The only thing, I think, that stopped them is they wanted to base their F1 outfit out of their factory in Germany, so buying an existing team that was based in the UK wouldn't have made any sense, as they'd have to move everything over to Germany and most of the staff wouldn't want to move there for family reasons etc

[@VkmSpouge]

With all that money, they should have hired Adrian Newey when he became disgruntled at McLaren but then I don't think Newey would have been very happy in Toyota's corporate environment.

[@wiegraf9009]

Absolutely. He never would have put up with it.

[@ibex485]

He undoubtedly wouldn't have liked Toyota, or any corporate-owned team. They almost certainly wouldn't have offered the career progression he wanted. A major reason he left Williams was he could never be promoted to Technical Director because that position was occupied by co-founder Patrick Head. Williams agreed to give him a say in some major decisions, then broke the agreement and failed to consult him. McLaren made him Technical Director, but again that was the ceiling. And it would have been much the same at Toyota, Ove Andersson was unlikely to be replaced as he had founded the team which later became Toyota Team Europe. Red Bull finally gave Newey what he always wanted. Although he's not team principal (not sure he ever wanted that role), he has a major say in how the team is run. Red Bull Technologies is very much run jointly by 3 people - Horner, Marko & Newey.

[@SiVlog1989]

Toyota's failure shows that it doesn't matter how much money gets thrown at a project, if the decisions are too slow in coming, it holds the organisation up. Worse still, what progress was made was undermined by interference from Japan (the switch from Michelin tyres to Bridgestone in 2006 was made against the wishes of the technical team, setting them back from the relative high of 2005).

[@siimtokke3461]

Love how you described "Barrichello breaking too early and causing eight car pile-up" instead of "Ralf driving into Barrichello".

[@thesfdoctor3603]

Ralf and Barrichello are probably the drivers who crashed the most in history of F1, and 99% was almost always Ralf's fault

[@RANDOMZBOSSMAN1]

9:28 the perfrct summary of Toyota time in f1 the reason they evem stepped back in performance was because they made a car which was designed for Michelin tires to use Bridgestone And why did they make the switch in 2006..... because Bridgestone and them IIRC were commerical partners and not for any actual competitive reasons, Michelin by 06 had the better tires (if your team wasn't ferrari) in nearly all conditions aside from damp conditions The Toyota f1 experience lol

[@RANDOMZBOSSMAN1]

Edit - you even mentioned it lol just a disconnect from the board and the F1 team F1 teams need to be way more on their feet than building cars using the JIT/Toyoa methodology and they suffered for it

[@kevin-l7r7p]

You had me hooked at "screaming V10s" 😃

[@joakimjeppsson8315]

Said "screaming V10s" 4 times in less than 20 seconds and it all made sense

[@eddieredmann3]

I see a lot of similarities between Toyota's leadership at the time and how they treated F1 and how the current bosses at Renault treat their F1 operation.

[@ibex485]

It's not only the staff pool which is in the UK, the very specialised supply chain is also overwhelmingly in the UK. Many of the parts teams have to design themselves are actually manufacturerd by specialist suppliers. Being able to go and speak in person to the small company which is going to manufacture your fuel cell, valves & other parts for the hydraulic system etc. has to be a significant advantage over emailing them some CAD files. Especially when there's an issue. If someone at Manor had listened to their fuel cell supplier in 2010, they would have avoided starting the season with a car unable to carry enough fuel for a full race at racing speed and having to spend a fortune producing a new chassis. (The rumour at the time was that the company making the fuel cell, who supplied most/all of the other teams (and knew what their fuel capacity was), gave Manor some tactful advice - along the lines of 'are you sure that's what you want, please confirm the specifications you've given us are correct'.)

[@caphowdy666]

I don't really think where they were based had anything to do with it as the non England based teams have never had an issue recruiting, and language never seems to be an issue as many Brits have gone over to them over the years. Sauber based in Switzerland, AT and Ferrari based in Italy, and they are not native English speaking countries either, which is why drivers and team members often go out of their way to learn the language even if those countries are more likely to speak English than the Brits are to speak their language. Sauber was a big manufacturer during the BMW era. Ferrari is a big manufacturer (of sorts) and so was Toyota, so I really don't think it would have been more difficult for Brits to work for Toyota and relocate than it was for the BMW and Ferrari guys. BMW was far more successful and Ferrari was winning titles. Toyota suffered from exactly the same problem as Jaguar. Interference from the parent company rather than being left alone. (hell we all know the famous "Who is this Edmund Irvine bloke on the payroll" quote". Of course not being based in the UK does make things tougher, I just don't think that was a factor here.

[@privateinformation2960]

Jaguar was a manufacturer of both road and race cars both successful. Toyota most certainly built great road cars, and forklifts, and have a hand in crap loads of heavy manufacturing businesses and should have done better than they did.

[@caphowdy666]

@@privateinformation2960 Jaguar were not successful in F1 though were they. Also remember that Jaguar won at Le Mans before Ford took over, and their second win was literally just months after the Ford buy out, so probably had no input into the Le Mans program which was run by TWR. During the whole time that Ford owned the company, the road car business never made a profit.

[@palm92]

Someone said on here this is likely F1’s biggest ever failure - it’S certainly in the running. I’d also give a shout-out to Jaguar, and my personal #1, the wretched 1991 Porsche 3512 V12.

[@VonBlade]

Think Toyota, think _that_ Will Hoy teammate crash. Think that turbo restrictor, that McNish crash in F1, (sidebar that McNish crash in LM24), how fast Trulli was, the GTOne, the Corolla stopping within sight of the finish for Carlos, the 2016 Le Mans. I think they're cursed.

[@AidanMillward]

Corolla at least went back to back in 86 and 87 in the BTCC.

[@VonBlade]

@@AidanMillward indeed but I think as a general rule they've never got near a winning percentage commensurate with their investment in any Motorsport

[@palm92]

@@VonBlade In 1992 Toyota had 3 separate cars built to Group C regulations; The TS010 3.5L car used in the WSC, the 92C-V 3.6L V8 Turbo car built to old Group C regs for the Japan Sports Prototype Championship, and The Eagle MKIII used in IMSA with a 2.1L L4 Turbo. Cripes!

[@ibex485]

Don't forget although the Celica ST205 was an overweight pig in 1995, the preceding Celica ST185 had just won 4 WRC drivers titles in 5 years, including beating Lancia at their peak! (Run by the same Toyota Team Europe in Cologne who would later enter F1.)

[@RazorSharp75426]

@@VonBlade you forgot the Toyota 7 Turbo testing crash in 1970 that killed its superstar driver . It causes Toyota to bin the Toyota 7 project and pulling out from Can Am.

[@reptongeek]

Olivier didn't win the Monaco GP because 'everyone crashed'. Before his pit stop he overtook three or four cars, overtook Irvine afterwards and then got into the lead when Hill and then Alesi retired with mechanical failure. Had he not done those initial overtakes he would have finished fourth

[@AidanMillward]

Overtook Irvine… but firing him into a wall at the hairpin. 😅

[@reptongeek]

@@AidanMillward True, but loads of other drivers had been complaining they couldn't overtake him in the race but Panis had. Despite his retirement Irvine did shake his hand the next day to say well done

[@johannessamuelsson6578]

Toyota then really has similarities with Alpine today i.e.allegedly being very heavy on the corporate interference.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Even worse isn't Alpine owned by the French government!? At least the Japanese people weren't paying their taxes on a lousy F1 team!

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

Of course, Sid Watkins had to tell Alan McNish he wasn't fit to race. There's no way he would willingly withdraw from anything. His head's as hard as a coconut. 😀🥥

[@d-d-i]

What makes this even more bitter is the fact that Toyota quit rallying because this, even thou they had one of the best team of the sport and best drivers driving for them in WRC.

[@rexthewolf3149]

But then they came back.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

And Le Mans, at the same time! They threw all the money & resource into F1, for the false prestige, where they could have potentially actually succeeded at something....

[@wheelsjamember]

Kinda makes you wonder about Audi’s current trajectory doesn’t it?

[@adampetten5349]

Trulli was one of the five best qualifiers and BMW Williams paid Ralf a lot. In crap cars Talent manifests differently. Montoya took a year and a half to get on top of Ralf. Ralf had 6 more wins than Heidfeld who bested Kubica twice.

[@mark4lev]

Yes formula creates more questions than it answers

[@markvicferrer]

Finally got around to watching the documentary about Brawn's incredible season & it makes Toyota's failure look even worse in comparison.

[@lacosanostra20]

I think you're funny when you swear. We need to up your f-bomb limit.

[@ivaneurope]

Mind you that Toyota killed off all of their other racing divisions like their rally and sportscar programmes to concentrate only on F1 which in the end didn't do them any favours. Audi is doing the same mistake Toyota did - they already killed the stillborn LMDh project, the Dakar programme will also shut down and most baffingly would end their profitable and successful customer racing programmes in the GT3 and TCR categories (or in the best case scale down works support to the bare minimum). And all of that just to concentrate on Formula One - an area in which neither Audi, nor the Volkswagen Group in general (bar Porsche, but that's a whole other story) has expertise.

[@MaxScheibenpflug]

I keep blaming the ugly paintjob for their misfortune. Why couldn't they keep the testing livery? 😁

[@chrisguardiano6143]

As an American one thing that I think really hurt & eventually killed Toyota's involvement in F1 along with the financial crisis of 2008 was their growing interest & then involvement in NASCAR. As far back as the early 90's, Toyota was planning to enter NASCAR & had even started talking to Bill France Jr about entering the sport as early as 1993. Then the Japanese financial crisis of the mid 90's ended all hope of that happening at that time with Toyota deciding to focus their US motorsport efforts into Indycar/CART. However by the early 2000s, with an ever increasing rift between Toyota & CART (which resulted in Toyota defecting to the IRL after 2002) along with a better financial position, Toyota decided it was time to enter NASCAR. At first Toyota started their involvement in the Truck Series in 2004 & then entered the Xfinity & Cup Series in 2007. At first Toyota's success in NASCAR was all in the Truck Series with Toyota drivers winning the title every year from 2006-2010. Meanwhile their Cup Series program was absolutely awful in the first few years with Michael Waltrip Racing & Red Bull (yes they were in NASCAR for a brief period) always being at the back of the pack. It wasn't until Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) became a Toyota team in 2008 that Toyota realized that if they invested more money in NASCAR, they could have a quicker ROI than they would in staying in F1. It took 7 years but Toyota won the Cup Series title in 2015 with Kyle Busch & have been quite successful in NASCAR since then winning two more titles in 2017 with Martin Truex Jr & 2019 with Kyle Busch again & multiple race wins.

[@AbrahamArthemius]

Personally it's not just NASCAR and i always felt the NASCAR side of Toyota is mostly run by the Toyota USA/TRD rather than Toyota Global much like how the Acura running in IMSA is run by HPD/Honda America rather than HRC/Honda Global (until their recent merger yesterday) After their failure in F1, Toyota went on to go back to something i call their "roots" being Rally & Sportscar Racing. They now have a successful WRC & WEC program, a GT4 & Cup customer race cars, a new GT3 & Rally2 car currently in development, and not forgetting to mention their continued support in Super GT in GT500 & GT300 class.

[@KingofWolves3277]

I think they should have stayed in F1 and they would have success (and probably would be good under the cost cap)

[@jonlamontagne]

I think that McLaren was a better example of copying. Some how the Papayra RedBull has not gotten as much attention as the Green RedBull or the Pink Merc (interesting they have done that more than once). The Papayra colored car has not only copied the side pods but the floor and the rear end as well. It is not a carbon copy because that is against the rules now but it took considerable inspiration from the RB19. It didn't hurt they got to see the floor of that car while they were already working on the redesign of the whole car not just the floor. They just got even better inspiration far more accurate than before. HAHA

[@elasticater8429]

I love these videos and the series in general, keep them coming! I would say though i think this is a bit harsh on Trulli and Schumacher as a driver pairing. I mean, they signed 2 grand prix winners from teams which had been challenging for the title in recent years. Not to mention that Trulli probably would have outscored Alonso in 2004 if he hadn't been released early.

[@RageousMode]

7:40 - Always love a good DS9 reference. Blueprints are not the same as a physical component because IT IS REAL! Brother Benny approves of your fandom Aiden.

[@rexthewolf3149]

V10.

[@AidanMillward]

V10

[@tturi2]

V10

[@nicolascordobaprado3455]

V10

[@mr.fister4738]

V10.

[@Gravstein]

V10

[@waltertaylor44]

Toyota should have thrown everything at trying to sign Schumi in 2006. The window would have been small but they could have won races.

[@McLarenMercedes]

That would only have worked if both Ferrari and Schumacher had agreed that they wouldn't extend his contract for 2007 and beyond. Unfortunately - and Aidan actually made a video about this - Ferrari decided to make sure that Schumacher was forced to either agree to drive alongside Raikkonen in 2007 or to retire from Ferrari (and F1). Ferrari kept him waiting until all the top drives at McLaren and Renault were taken thereby denying Schumacher any attempt to broker a deal with them. And here's the thing: Even if Ferrari had agreed to let Schumacher go to any team of his own choice chances are he'd most likely sign for either McLaren or Renault knowing they could provide him with a competitive car. Toyota's only chance would be to offer Schumacher the same salary he got at Ferrari or even more. There's also another "small problem" by signing for Toyota. That means that Trulli is sacked and Michael drives alongside his brother or Ralf is sacked and Michael replaces him. Either option spells severe problems for the Schumacher family. The two brothers had since long agreed that they would never be team mates at any team. Why? Because they would become rivals and one of them would have to lose... But let's suppose Schumacher signs for Toyota. Unfortunately he won't take Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Jean Todt with him to Toyota. Those were instrumental to Schumacher's success at Ferrari.

[@dxfifa]

They would have won nothing. Schumacher would have left before 2009 with the rubbish in 07 and 08

[@TheToonMonkey]

"People go on about the 2000's as the best part of Formula One"......must be the people who missed out on the years prior to that.

[@EvanLoxley]

My understanding was that Toyota gave da Matta a chance since he won them their first and only CART championship, and then let him go mid-season in 2004 because he was just a little too vocal about the issues with the TF104/B. It doesn't mention it directly in their 2004 Season yearbook (no surprise), though it does hype up Mike Gascoyne...

[@palm92]

I watched that season twice and he was excellent - remember CART then was arguably a better F1 feeder series than International F3000. He was amazing there from 1999-2002. Toyota’s CART program has some strange parallels with F1. Took forever to get going (mostly due to the “Toyota Way”) and eventually came quite good (they likely had the best engine by 2000 power wise.) - but unlike there they actually won.

[@tomanderson6335]

@@palm92 Also completely burned their bridge with Dan Gurney and AAR, since Toyota put most of the blame on their 1996 Eagle Mk-V chassis, even though the Toyota engine had made a habit of self destructing...which it continued doing in 1997 in the backs of the Reynards Toyota made AAR run that year...

[@palm92]

@@tomanderson6335 It was also complete crap in the Arcerio-Wells Reynard 96i-Firestone. Honestly the Eagle’s biggest drawback were the Goodyears which got worse and worse since early 1996.

[@Eagleracer38x]

'The Toyota Way' is the Japanese way of doing things. They never do stuff on the bleeding edge of Technology, they go for high percentage things. That's why no Japanese constructors team has won the F1 championship ever. They've done well as an engine manufacturer obviously. But, they will never win as a constructors with the play it safe mentality and the slow bureaucratic ways of doing everything. Toyota never won a Le Mans or WEC title until they were the only team competing anymore.

[@rexthewolf3149]

Well their about to win in wec this time. As long as they don’t fuck up Bahrain

[@palm92]

They won a WEC title in 2014 (and again this year.) against Audi but the gist of this is true, and Kobayashi has said as much. It’s why the WEC team has more autonomy now. Even in their domestic series, there are no real works teams - it’s run by TOM’S or Mugen. The Japanese do take big risks with racing technology I’d say. Or at least, Honda does. Sometimes it pays off, others it fails spectacularly. Their biggest issue is that Toyota more or less never seeks outside help or contractors - which can prove detrimental.

[@wiegraf9009]

@@palm92Their WRC team is also most Finnish. They learned from their mistakes.

[@neo1711]

Do you even keep track of the wec? Toyota won the whole thing at fuji

[@fuzzynutter8344]

Toyota also spent a shed load in sportcar racing for decades, only finally seeing success when at Le Mans and the world championship during the past few years.

[@AidanMillward]

Tbh they were only winning Le nan’s cos it was just them. 🤣

[@fuzzynutter8344]

@@AidanMillward I originally wrote that I my comments then thought, nah, I didn't want to do Toyota a disservice 😂.

[@LucasOliveira-tt2ll]

the Toyota saga is the funniest part of the boring years of the Schumacher era. They were also taking part on Discovery documentaries depicting their suffering into making a front wing that works and as we all know it didn't

[@RazorSharp75426]

The only exciting thing about the 2000s F1 is perhaps the Death/Heavy Metal scream-esque F1 V10s / V8s that lots of fans still reminisce years later.

[@tomstevens7452]

The classic case of the board room trying to run a race team. Similar to how Ferrari is now

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

As a Toyota driver for many years and a Formula 1 fan with a keen dislike for Hamilton ever since his mug first appeared on the grid back in "07 you can imagine how painful it is to look back at Toyota's tenure in F1. Even more painful seeing how well Toyota's Gazoo Racing does with a hybrid engine in WEC. I'd just know deep down they could have been great if they were in F1 in this era.

[@ProStriker92]

Toyota really belongs to sportscars, stock cars and rally. And while with Super Formula shows that Toyota can do a lot with open wheelers, F1 is just a whole different world.

[@privateinformation2960]

I'll tell you straight up as an Aussie you could swear they built their roadcars for us. Old school FJ45 LandCruisers (I grew up in the back of one of those) are now worth a small fortune and older corollas coronas and celicas rusted out decades before their engines stopped. They are a great road and rally builder and it was sad they never did better in F1 - my old man swore by Toyota's and it was only me that went the Holden route! ( If you've ever owned a Commodore you know why we keep buying them)

[@dddsss376]

I never understood why they even started their development in Germany. In that time i thought it would be better to use their fasilitics in Japan. Didn´t they even build a complete new wind Tunnel in 2004 in Germany for f1 because the Tunnel produced faulty results?

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

Easy! Because F1 is, and was, based in Europe. Suppliers, people, most of the races at that time. They also had an entire facility ready to produce cars from the ground up. The factory (and team, including designers and driver McNish) were brought over from the Gt-One Le Mans prototype programme, which they killed off to...go F1 testing... Along with leaving the WEC, F1 just swallowed all the money. When they already had dynos, draughting offices, race bays, autoclaves, engine workshops, windtunnel, a test track, all at Cologne, why not base there? TTE (Toyota Team Europe) had been operating there since the mid 70's ruining the rally team until the late 90s and then the Le Mans prototypes, so it was 1000% logical.

[@GreenHornet553]

Part of me wonders if the reorganization of Toyota's racing division has allowed them to learn the lessons of where they went wrong and could come back into the sport with a fresh perspective and better understanding of what it takes to win. I would like to think that the Toyota Gazoo Racing outfit would do much better and wouldn't face meddling from the board back in Japan, but I don't know if I can say that with any certainty. It's just a shame that the largest auto manufacturer shot themselves in the foot so many times with their racing team that they burned through billions to not get a single win in F1.

[@privateinformation2960]

And they would be wrong. 1992-1994 was peak F1.

[@brilliantradience]

Toyota thought they'd throw money at the issue till it was solved

[@1greenMitsi]

You can say what u want about Toyota F1 team, but that Denso Panasonic livery was utterly iconic

[@1_5RCBiker]

Toyota in fairness with the windtunnel in Cologne was a good business considering a lot of F1 teams have used it. They did get something right! The rest... Baah!

[@RACECAR]

I mean there is always someone out there that needs a WindTunnel so...

[@zilentzap]

No doubt that IF the Toyota of nowadays had a team they'd doing great

[@joakimjeppsson1443]

Toyota had one thing going for them; they had a screaming V10

[@racer9637]

To be fair, Glock would have won in Hungary, if Toyota didn’t butcher that one Stop.

[@michaelbrown297]

I had a Motorsport Manager mod with Toyota in 04. I nabbed Frentzen who was a free agent in 04 and paired him with Kubica. Frentzen especially on the back of his Beyond The Grid interview would have been an amazing get to give some technical direction (even maybe nabbing Heidfeld who was struggling along with Jordan...).

[@dxfifa]

Trulli gave great direction but Toyota listened to Ralf and the car's performance suffered badly

[@griffinsimpson-tuckey9832]

it's always a good day when you upload. never mind the fact that it's almost 1am for me...

[@boing615]

I seem to recall they switched to Bridgestone at the last minute because the road car division signed a deal to put all their cars on their tyres and thought the F1 team had to mirror that. The ultimate example of corporate interference.

[@GWFires]

You cant always buy success ? CORPORATE INTERFERENCE ! but i would also like to add, based on the Toyota Inhouse Magazine "One-Aim" they started to concentrate mid 2005 for the 2006 season. Correct that late political switch from Michelin to Bridgestone for 2006 (first test 29 November 2005) lead to to Gascoyne leaving the team. After resisting the "Toyota Way". Ralf Schumacher wasnt replaced based on performance, because he wouldnt drive F1 for half his salary which is still much. There is also the Toyota TF110 missing. Yes the chassis which was built for 2010 which StefanGP wanted to race with Villeneuve. And somehow the ending of the 2009 season is gone. Its not there. i mean how did this all end ? The old Toyota Hq in cologne is still there and still guarded by security as it was a huge part of regional toyota center. And also please you are speaking about drivers which hadnt proven anything at that point (Kubica, Vettel etc.) at the time this werent stupid decisions but very smart ones : Salo was the true Winner of Hockenheim 99 in a Ferrari and helped built the team as he tested the car with McNish. Also McNish came to F1 with LeMans wins behind his back. They got replaced by Panis and Da Matta and yes the team then started to do what you said they werent they searched and hired talented drivers. Ralf Schumacher back in 03, was fighting till Hockenheim for the WC and only the crash in that race ended it. He was at that time a potential World Champion and a team leader in which role he was hired. Jarno Truli back in 04, did win Monaco and his only problems were the tyres. But all in all he did end HHF career at Jordan and did drive for Renault very well. Timo Glock was a GP2 champion when joining Toyota. (Fun fact. Live on German tv the then team principal Mario Theissen of BMW which Glock had a contract with said on live tv "if timo has a contract with toyota we will let him go asap as we dont want to hinder his career. Then somehow all ended at the Contract Recognition Board, because Theissen couldnt remember sayin he would let Glock go)

[@David-mr3gw]

sitting down with my dinner after a hard days graft, looking forward to watching this 🤤 your videos are bloody brilliant!

[@ibex485]

$4 Billion... Never thought it was that much, but thinking back the estimate seems entirely credible. And what did they achieve? Well they made Jaguar and Honda look like well run teams, by comparison. They got the double-diffuser concept for 2009 from Honda, from some employees in Japan they recruited from Honda. (That was one of Honda's mistakes too - trying to develop the car in two places on the other side of the world from each other.) But it was completely wasted. Large corporations and car manufacturers should be banned from owning F1 teams and stick to supplying engines. Since the '60s, they almost always fail. Mercedes is a rare exception, but they only became successful after major restructuring, bringing in Toto & Nikki to run the team and Daimler-Benz stepping back and letting them do their job. (Likewise Dietrich never tried to run RBR himself.) Many of Ferrari's recurring troubles are due to interferance from the management above, we saw it happen yet again at the start of this year.

[@palm92]

The Double Diffuser was a Super Aguri idea actually!

[@charleshulsey3103]

First 30sec. 👍 let's get some likes for the screaming v10s👍👍👍

[@LFC4LIFEJEDI]

I would argue that Toyota are the biggest failure in F1 history because of the sheer amount of money they spent and the resources they had at their disposal

[@RC-zt9ct]

The Toyota Way was really an achilles heel in the fast moving world of formula one. But maybe with the budget cap in place it, it would work. The cars nowadays are not really an new design at all, more an evolution of previous years car. Maybe the Toyota Way would work as it focusses on evolving and improving rather than new design...

[@wiegraf9009]

It depends. If your car concept is bad and you need to redo the whole chassis season to season refinement doesn't help (see: Mercedes). If you are in a position like RBR or McLaren refinement is the name of the game.

[@AbrahamArthemius]

I also think things internally have changed a lot as well since Akio Toyoda took over the helm and built Gazoo Racing.

[@eamonahern7495]

I remember a race in canada where the drivers were told to keep away from the kerbs because their suspension couldn't handle them. Maybe that was around the time they switched to Bridgestone, I don't really remember. That's how bad their car was at times. I was going to say "bring back V12s" when you were giving the introduction. I didn't know V12 was Toyota's original intention. If only...! 🤔

[@privateinformation2960]

They do need to come back. Being at a v-10+v12 race to hear them start screaming past you literally brought on a rush of adrenaline newer fans never got to experience. Having worked F1 MotoGP and Superbikes in Australia I can tell you they literally sound like Superbikes now only SBK pilots don't have a safety bubble around them.

[@owensnicholas]

Man, I was really pulling for Toyota. It was frustrating to be a fan of theirs.

[@DimpsGreen-nt7kv]

Toyleta.

[@aslamnurfikri7640]

I thought finishing behind Minardi in 2002 should have been Toyota's wake up call that whatever they were severely unprepared for F1

[@ristomattikolsi5711]

Had Toyota established their Formula1 operations in the only place it's worth to do so, as in Great Britain, they would have been very succesfull. But instead, they went to Germany which was a big mistake. Germans are lousy at racing engineering. All the great teams which have won multiple world championships are based in GB. (minus Ferrari) McLaren, Williams, Renault, Mercedes, Redbull,... These are all basicly british teams, based in England, design, development and building done mostly by british now how.

[@Touva1bitesthedust]

You could say that Toyota has completely redeemed themselves after making the switch from F1 to Endurance racing instead. Maybe they brought their F1 experience with them in order to dominate the series today. Although you could make the argument that Toyota are only winning due to lack of competition, just like Audi. idk.

[@simonkevnorris]

I've been following F1 since 1981 and my first race I attended was Adelaide in 1986 (We did a coach trip from Perth - 36 hours to the Barossa Valley). I've been to 64 races and I've watched races since the Turbo era. My favourite era was when there were V12s on the grid. At races like Spa and Monza the Ferraris (Alesi and Berger) were frequently the first out of the pits. You could hear the shriek of the V12s as they went around the Ardenne of the Royal Park.

[@fdzaviation]

WOW that McNish Crash in Suzuka was Grosjean's before it was Hot. Oh wait...

[@a.a.1245]

While watching the 2000s F1 we were always saying the 90s e 80s were the greateasts. We are always complaining 😂

[@Calilasseia]

It's quite a contrast ... Toyota build cars for the mass market that work, and work *well*, with bomb proof reliability and excellent second hand values, but blow £4 billion on a failed F1 works team ...

[@benjaminwitte5184]

Toyota's bean counters must've seen the light and decided to go all in on NASCAR racing the same time they were exiting F1.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

Nah, they just had to save face in a global financial crisis and market crash. Honda had left & Toyota couldn't keep paying for racing while sacking workers, as Honda stated their reasons for quitting F1 were to lessen that situation, Toyota couldn't look like the bad guys in comparison.

[@mark4lev]

Not only Toyota. What about bmw, and Honda. During the v10-v8 era. Honda won one lucky race with button. Bmw won one race but again luck played a part. (Remember when Hamilton ran into the back of kimi in the pit lane?) To put it into perspective torro Rosso outperformed bmw in the second half of 2009. So Toyota won……….yea. Best part of €12 billion euros if you actually cost it out amongst the three teams. Tragic .

[@polygonvvitch]

I remember being a wee bab of 4 watching Schumacher's domination wins on TV with my dad back in the early 00s. The screaming V10s will forever be THE sound of motor racing to me.

[@Yuggoth87]

Damn it ! I actually scared my mom when i started to laugh like a madman when you coughed *Bulls***t" after the quote "The Tf-103 was a highly competitive car" ... but yeah, i got the point that's a BS as big as a planet

[@SunnyIntervalsORG]

In Japan it's not considered polite to say "I can't do that" especially to your boss, more acceptable to say "That's going to be difficult" or "Muzukashii".

[@trbd]

It's unbelievable how much they spent considering their dealership still go something like "hi, would you like to buy some overpriced shitbox from the 80s, or would you like to destabilize some poor country in middle east or africa?"

[@skrub45]

"The TF104 and 104B were a disaster" with the Williams FW43 in the background is fucking genius

[@tomastoth4018]

I really don't think they would manage to lure a top-level driver into their team. Most of them got their own Ts&Cs of treatment / overall influence within the team and would refuse manipulation with themselves - there would be NO or at least LIMITED "going the Japanese way" kind of thing going on. Michael wouldn't allow that for sure.