MOTORSPORT: Toyota confirms F1 exit

Tears as Japanese giant shuts up GP shop
The exit of the world's largest car maker, Toyota, from Formula One is official, even sooner than we anticipated just a day ago.

Within hours of yesterday's report, the Japanese giant confirmed its departure after eight years of grand prix racing without a victory.

The number of manufacturers in F1 has been halved in 12 months -- with Honda, BMW and now Toyota gone, leaving just Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Renault, whose ongoing participation is continually doubted.

Toyota's exit at least opens the door for Swiss-based Sauber, with its mysterious new Middle East money, to remain in F1 post-BMW.

Tadashi Yamashina (pictured, second image), principal of the Toyota race team run out of Cologne, Germany, was in tears as company president Akio Toyoda made the announcement yesterday in Tokyo.

"It was a very difficult but unavoidable decision," Toyoda said. "Since last year as the economic climate worsened we have been struggling with the question of whether to continue in F1.

"We are pulling out of F1 completely.

"I offer my deepest apologies to Toyota's many fans for not being able to achieve the results we had targeted.

"Since becoming president in June I have attempted to concentrate on delivering Toyota's product to customers.

"That is where we have to focus our resources now.

"We stressed our commitment to F1 last year and we have done our best over the past season, but it was no longer viable to continue."

So ends an enormously expensive and embarrassing exercise. Indeed failure.

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