Toyota certainly surprised Formula 1 fans Friday when it announced the start of a technical partnership with the Haas F1 Team. Under this new multi-year arrangement, the Japanese automaker will offer its “design, technical, and manufacturing services” to the Banbury, U.K.-based crew, while Haas will share its own data and expertise, not to mention “commercial benefits” (read: advertising). Unsurprisingly, it took little time before hopes and predictions of Toyota’s reentry into the sport—either as a power unit supplier or by eventually purchasing Haas—began to percolate, though the automaker has vehemently shot both scenarios down.
“We have no plan to have a team in Formula 1,” Toyota Gazoo Racing project manager Masaya Kaji said, per Racer. “At this moment we have the best option to collaborate with Haas.” Kaji added that Toyota also doesn’t plan to build engines “at this moment,” meaning that the American squad’s Ferrari power units aren’t about to be ditched anytime soon.
The relationship between the two companies is ill-defined at the moment, especially since this is all so fresh, and it’ll be a while before anyone has a chance to see it play out in real time. Some more specific details have emerged; Toyota intends to install a simulator at the Banbury facility, leveraging its know-how from its World Endurance Championship program. It’ll also be involved with Haas’ previous-car testing, to give young in-house talent an opportunity to prove their mettle. And here’s where the more philosophical side of Toyota’s effort comes into view, because if you hear chairman and former CEO Akio Toyota talk about this partnership, it becomes immediately obvious that he’s thinking a lot about that particular piece of the puzzle.
“Not very long ago, I had the opportunity to speak with [Haas] Team Principal [Ayao] Komatsu,” Toyoda said in a press conference on Friday. “Mr. Komatsu himself is someone who has carved out big dreams. But behind him was his father, who always allowed him to freely chase those dreams. Both Mr. Komatsu and I have come to share the same desire to be a ‘father’ who allows his children to chase their dreams.
“The Super Formula [Japan’s top open-wheel racing series] drivers over there now, both the Toyota and the Honda drivers, all grew up as kids driving karts,” Toyoda continued. “I believe there are many children all over the country who, admiring them, also drive karts. I think that, together with Mr. Komatsu and his team, we need to increase the number of such children.” You can watch this announcement in its entirety below.
Toyoda also candidly admitted that a small part of him regretted shuttering Toyota’s F1 program at the end of the 2009 season, because it ultimately blocked “Japanese youths’ path toward driving the world’s fastest cars.” Toyota is of course a large company, involved in motorsports at many high levels. It has a farm system unto itself, and Haas would give that young, homegrown talent a seat to aspire to. So long as Ferrari Academy stars don’t get any preferential treatment, anyway.
Oh, and one more thing. Considering Toyoda specifically called out the media at the end of his address, I would be remiss not to include his disclaimer: “Please make sure that tomorrow’s headlines don’t read ‘Toyota Finally Returns to F1,'” the executive known to some as Morizo said. Indeed, Toyota is not returning to F1 in the way anyone would imagine reading that sentence; they’re not supplying engines, and they’re not running a factory team. Rather, Toyota is working to help its drivers break into F1. Now, if that goes well, who knows what the future holds?