Toyota in Formula One: eight seasons without a win

Panasonic Toyota Racing was a Formula One team owned by Toyota and based in Cologne, Germany. Toyota announced its plans to join in 1999, tested extensively with a prototype called the TF101, and debuted in 2002. The team never won a Grand Prix, finished second five times, and withdrew on 4 November 2009 after eight consecutive seasons.

Toyota in Formula One at a glance

Based on one source: the English Wikipedia article on Toyota in Formula One.

History of the Toyota in Formula One

Origins

Toyota’s motorsport history began when a Toyopet Crown entered the Round Australia Trial in 1957. The Formula One team’s roots go back to 1972, when Ove Andersson’s team ran a Celica 1600GT in the RAC Rally; it became Toyota Team Europe and, after Toyota bought it in 1993, Toyota Motorsport GmbH. The rally team won four World Rally Championship drivers’ titles, including with Carlos Sainz, and three constructors’ titles, and was banned by the FIA for twelve months at the end of 1995 for running illegal parts. In 1997 the organisation moved into track racing with a sports car project that twice failed to win Le Mans, and on 21 January 1999 Toyota announced its move into Formula One, ending its rally and Le Mans programmes. On 30 June 2000 the team secured the twelfth entry for 2002, having forfeited an $11 million deposit by delaying its original plan to enter in 2001.

The early years

Unusually, Toyota started its own works team rather than partnering a specialist race team, and set it up away from Britain’s Motorsport Valley. In 2001 it tested the TF101 prototype with drivers at eleven circuits to gather telemetry and give the drivers experience. Finn Mika Salo, who could communicate in Japanese, and Scot Allan McNish, who had driven the GT-One at Le Mans in 1999, were appointed as test drivers. Toyota debuted in 2002 with McNish and Salo in the TF102 designed by Gustav Brunner, and scored only two points all year: one in the first race in Australia, where a first-corner accident eliminated half the field, and one in Brazil. Neither driver was offered a race seat for 2003.

Later seasons

For 2003 Toyota signed Cristiano da Matta, the ChampCar champion driving a Toyota-powered car, and Olivier Panis. The wider points system helped, and the team scored several finishes, with fifth in Germany as its best, while the cars ran first and second at the British Grand Prix after pitting under the safety car and Panis qualified third in the United States. Toyota finished the season with sixteen points and eighth in the constructors’ championship. In 2004 both Toyotas and the Williams cars were disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix for illegal parts, and da Matta left after the German Grand Prix, replaced by Ricardo Zonta. Despite one of the largest budgets in Formula One, the team never won a race; its best results were five second places. Toyota announced its immediate withdrawal on 4 November 2009. In October 2024 the Toyota name returned to Formula One through a technical partnership with Haas F1 Team via Toyota Gazoo Racing, expanded in December 2025 into a title partnership as TGR Haas F1 Team.

Design and features

• Works team: Toyota built its own chassis and team in Cologne rather than buying an existing outfit.
• No wins: five second places were the best results of eight seasons.
• TF101 to TF109: the team’s cars, from the 2001 test prototype to the final season.
• Return in 2024: a technical, later title, partnership with Haas through Gazoo Racing.

Toyota in Formula One versions

• TF101 (2001): test prototype run at eleven circuits.
• TF102 (2002): debut car designed by Gustav Brunner.
• TF103 (2003): the car of da Matta and Panis.
• TF105 to TF109: later cars, including the 2009 season.

Toyota’s Formula One cars followed its rallying history with the Celica, and its road-car performance arm produced the GR Supra and the GR Yaris. More cars are in the Toyota collection.

Sources

• Toyota in Formula One, English Wikipedia: team history, seasons, results