Toyota Not Eyeing F1 Comeback With Haas

Reports that Toyota is looking to return to Formula 1 in partnership with Haas are wide of the mark.

That is the claim of Auto Motor und Sport, following multiple speculative reports in the wake of a Toyota official being spotted in the Haas garage at the British GP.

The reports claimed Toyota, the Japanese carmaker giant last involved in F1 in 2009 with a full works team, was contemplating a sponsorship deal initially but could eventually become even more involved.

Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Tobias Gruner, however, said the rumours “didn’t really make sense”.

Indeed, Haas is believed to have already extended its engine and technical agreements with Ferrari through 2028.

Gruner said his sources report that Toyota is actually just “looking for a new tenant for the wind tunnel in Cologne”.

Until recently, McLaren used the Toyota wind tunnel, but the rapidly improving Woking-based team has invested millions in a new state-of-the-art tunnel at its own headquarters.

“One of the reasons we had so much trouble with the new regulations is that we had to go to Cologne for the wind tunnel,” McLaren boss Andrea Stella said this week.

However, using the Toyota wind tunnel would be a step up for Haas, given that aerodynamic development of the small team’s cars takes place entirely in the Ferrari tunnel in Maranello.

“It is also possible that Toyota will take over some of the contracted manufacturing (for Haas) that is currently carried out at Dallara in Italy,” Gruner said. “However, there are no concrete agreements on this yet.”

The report added that Toyota motorsport official Masaya Kaji was at Silverstone because he is a “good friend” of Haas boss Ayao Komatsu, with Gruner insisting: “Even after the current Ferrari deal expires in 2028, Toyota has no plans to increase its involvement in Formula 1.

“Building its own engines or even making a comeback with its own team is currently not conceivable.”