Kobayashi MUST drive next year, i will be fu*king pissed if no one aquires him!

Quote :

Toyota is expected to announced later today that it is withdrawing from Formula 1 with immediate effect, according to reports in the Japanese press, following a decision by the company's board of directors on Tuesday in Japan.

The official announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday afternoon Japan time, with representatives of the Toyota Motor Company reportly planning to hold a press conference to explain its decision.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80002

_

Quote from hyntty :

But of cource. Banning refueling will definately reduce costs since... (?) Err how do the costs reduce again?

Refueling rigs are big and heavy and not needing to ship them around the world saves €400,000 per team according to Adrian Newey. Source.

saving 0.1% will really make a difference
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/200 ... -biggest-f1-budget-4456m/

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80003

It's official.

Quote from Shotglass :

saving 0.1% will really make a difference
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/200 ... -biggest-f1-budget-4456m/

Big picture.

So Toyota poured millions and never won a race.

Pretty much proved the "Toyota way" is full of fail?

It's not official at all really.

Quote from Mustafur :

It's not official at all really.

Toyota themselves have announced it.

Renault are going to make an announcement about their future in F1 later today according to this french article :

http://www.f1-action.net/infos/article13240.html

I'd be surprised if they decide to leave now anyway, as they already signed with Kubica

Come on!!! STOP LEAVING!

Why? Manufacturers are bad for F1, except as engine suppliers.

So long as there are half decent teams to replace them.

I am really sad to see all of these manufacturers leave... if I had it my way, I'd have at least 50% of the field run by manufacturers and the rest independent teams~ Oh well...

On a related note, apparently Toyota is in talks with an "Asian buyer" and if it happens to be a manufacturer, Nissan and Hyundai seem to be the big players right now (speculations as late as 2008 seem to suggest these two), although I see Hyundai being better positioned as they've been recording record profit after record profit for quite some time now... but with all the stuff they've invested into Rhys Millen's Formula Drift and Pikes Peak ventures, I think they've got enough motorsport coverage. Yeah and I also think that it is highly unlikely that either would even be looking into it ATM.

I'm so glad that I'm not the ONLY ONE thinking that Kobayashi is awesome. 3 points on his second race is quite impressive by my standards. I love the way he carries himself both on and off the track. I'm itching to say that he is championship material but I'm getting ahead of myself now...

Oh yeah and also, Bridgestone is pulling out of F1 after 2010 so what do you think should happen? 1 main brand/supplier, limited suppliers (2-3 slots) or a free for all???

Quote from 5haz :

Toyota themselves have announced it.

lol, i didn't see the link i thought it was the one about the japanese media link or something.

Even if manufacturers were bad for the general health of F1, they at least brought some kind of prestige in the sport. "Mercedes", "BMW", or "Toyota" are way much speaking for the average viewer, and therefore boosted the audience, making F1 as known as it is now. I'm just glad that the FIA realised in time that the manufacturers weren't going to stay endlessy, and decided to give away the free slots and tryed to reduce the costs. Giving the 13th slot to Lotus and putting Qadback in a virtual 14th one was a great move too, without that there would have been no chances to get a full grid for 2010. It was quite obvious that one of the 13 teams wasn't going to make the season TBH.

Anyway I guess we'll stay with 1 unique tyres provider for 2011, as it was part of the FIA's plans.

I don't know, back when it was "only" Tyrell, Brabham, McLaren and the lot F1 seemed to do fine too... I still know there was a Jordan team, an Arrows, a Sauber, a Minardi and many others just a few years ago, and at that time I didn't care less for them because it wasn't a BMW or a Toyota... In fact, them not being multinational corporations made them a bit more likeable, in my eyes at least...

webber is in red yet hes been confirmed with red bull?

Quote from BreadC :

webber is in red yet hes been confirmed with red bull?

what do you mean?

Quote from Mustafur :

what do you mean?

in OT webber is listed as red at red bull when hes actually signed

Who am I going to root for if Renault leaves?
Also read somewhere that Williams doesn't want Sauber to enter F1 because they're trying to strike a deal with Petronas for 2010. Needless to say that Peter Sauber is pretty pissed about that.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Why? Manufacturers are bad for F1, except as engine suppliers.

What the hell are you on about, in the pre war AND post war days, the fundamental F1 teams were factory teams, Auto Union, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Bugatti and then in the post war days, Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes again and then Lotus which, are just like McLaren now, modifying road cars and now making their own road cars completely. If all these teams were eradicated from history of F1, I'm pretty sure F1 wouldn't exist as we know it today. The money they poured in, in the pre war days setup F1 after the war practically, Hitlers money too. Irony of all Ironies ;P

Quote from rich_hobo94 :

On a related note, apparently Toyota is in talks with an "Asian buyer"

The company is understood to have studied a variety of options to keep the team alive, notably selling it to the management or to a third party, but the conclusion reached was that it would be cheaper to simply close it down, given the redundancies that would have been required as a result of the plans that were agreed by the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) to bring down F1 staffing levels.

The news will be a major blow for the staff in Cologne, many of them who relocated to Germany to work for the team. There is no other F1 activity in the region as Mercedes-Benz currently does almost all of its F1 work in Britain. The nearest F1 team is Sauber in Switzerland.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com ... /toyota-confirms-pullout/

Yeah... shame about that. I guess they made that decision quite recently?? Has anyone else seen the press conference where Toyoda broke down and apologized to Toyota fans? That's really sad. I feel so sorry for him right now.

EDIT: Here is an article about the conference and strangely it says that it's still weighing up options on what to do with the team but I'm also thinking that they're going to close it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/spo ... quitting-Formula-One.html

Quote from rich_hobo94 :

On a related note, apparently Toyota is in talks with an "Asian buyer" and if it happens to be a manufacturer, Nissan and Hyundai seem to be the big players right now (speculations as late as 2008 seem to suggest these two), although I see Hyundai being better positioned as they've been recording record profit after record profit for quite some time now... but with all the stuff they've invested into Rhys Millen's Formula Drift and Pikes Peak ventures, I think they've got enough motorsport coverage. Yeah and I also think that it is highly unlikely that either would even be looking into it ATM.

Hyundai being South Korea's largest conglomerate, and South Korea having an F1 Grand Prix in the future, it's not totally implausible.