Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
According to their plans 2006 was the year when they thought they'd fight for WDC and WCC and they are now at least couple of seasons away from it. With 400.000.000 per season they've already spent amount of money that can't be returned by selling more cars even after winning more than one WDC or WCC and they still haven't got a single race victory.
Leaving F1 wouldn't be surprising. Even manufacturers with much more racing experience and tradition left F1 without making it (Peugeot for example).
Can't really blame Toyota, or any other manufacturer, for reconsidering their involvement in what is essentially a Marketing/PR opportunity. I should perhaps qualify that statement by saying while F1 is a worthwhile
endeavour, there comes a point when the value returned on investment is diminished. Given Max's penchant for angering the manufacturers with puzzling rule changes, and Bernie's avarice, F1 is in danger of being supplanted as the preferred motorsport investment by major manufacturers.
i think this is just the frustration of toyota talking. look at renault merc and ferrari(fiat) they have not been complaning much coz they have been achiving good results over the last few years.. so wat! if toyota leaves.. it just make 1 more place for a team to come in. look at wrc. few of the manufacturers left but still ford, subaru, skoda is there .
Part of me wants to believe that this is Toyota's sincere position. It is obvious that Max is trying to take F1 to the point where anything above $100 milion/year would be a pure waste of money...in other words, all you need to win is $100 million/year.
However, another part of me tells me that Toyota is just trying to set the stage for their eventual departure from F1. I hope it will not come to that. But, us, fans of Toyota's F1 team, are a visible minority, and, as Scuderia_Russ said, not many people will lose any sleep if Toyota does decide to leave F1.
I just hope that the latest test results from Paul Ricard are for real, and that Toyota is making true progress...all they need this year is ONE win, and I'm sure Toyota will stay in F1 - just remember what happened last year when Toyota had an awful result at the end of the first race...Toyota board was ready to pull the plug. However, due to Jarno's 2 podiums, any rumors about their eventual departure had disappeared.
Its all very sad that toyota may leave F1, but you have to agree that they brought it upon themselves by spending so much money in the first place, they could have just as easily invested half the amount and still be mid field.
I forget who said it, but toyota have been paying their drivers, engineers and management way too much just to retain their services, even though there are be better people out there, i.e adrian newey, who we know could have been bought.
F1 is about innovation, doing something different/better than the other guys, look at renault, with a much smaller budget they have won the WDC and WCC
If Toyota does leave then it will weaken the GPMA and also give points in Mosley's argument in regards that the manufacturers can leave at any time and are only in the sport for marketing reasons. So I hoping that Toyota does not leave as this will further strengthen Mosley's case.
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
