The path to the world’s fastest cars was previously slammed shut for Toyota’s racing drivers. Is it about to reopen?
On October 11, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) and the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team (Haas), which has competed in Formula 1 since 2016, announced a technical partnership aimed at cultivating talent and developing vehicles.
On the motorsport genba, Toyota has long pursued a “driver-first” approach to car making that incorporates feedback from professional drivers into the development of production vehicles. Through this partnership with Haas, TGR’s young drivers, engineers, and mechanics will get a chance to take on the pinnacle of motorsports, with their accumulated expertise and the resulting technologies helping to make ever-better cars.
Dreams and aspirations
On the day of the announcement, the teams held a press conference at Fuji Motorsports Forest in Oyama, Shizuoka. GAZOO Racing Company President Tomoya Takahashi explained the three elements of “driver-first” car making: people (personnel development), pipeline (data analysis and utilization), and product (vehicle development).
On the people front, Takahashi revealed that as part of this arrangement, TGR and Haas will establish a new “driver development program,” allowing TGR’s training drivers to gain F1 experience by participating in test runs. Similarly, engineers and mechanics will take part in developing racing car aerodynamics, simulating use under extreme conditions, as well as designing and fabricating carbon components.
At the same time, TGR’s engineers and mechanics will acquire expertise in instantly analyzing Haas’s vast troves of data during races and harnessing it to map out strategies in real-time, contributing to the Pipeline. The knowledge obtained through this process will be continually applied to Toyota’s vehicle development, the Product.
In terms of personnel development, Takahashi added, “The active roles of F1 drivers, engineers, and mechanics can provide children with dreams, aspirations, and goals. For TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, it is extremely important to demonstrate such hope to the children who will be responsible for the future of the automotive industry.”
On the other side of this partnership, Haas is currently in its ninth F1 season, sitting in seventh place out of ten teams after the Singapore Grand Prix in September.
At the press conference, Team Principal Ayao Komatsu described Haas as “both the youngest and the smallest team.” Having competed efficiently despite its size, the Haas team was seeking to push further up the rankings when this partnership was first mooted in February.
Morizo clears the air
Next to take the mic was Chairman Akio Toyoda, aka Morizo. He touched on the nature of racing drivers and the atmosphere that had pervaded Toyota’s pits since the company withdrew from F1 back in 2009.
This wasn’t the first time that Morizo had spoken his mind about the F1 withdrawal. In September 2023, when Ryo Hirakawa became a McLaren reserve driver after spending his entire career with Toyota-affiliated teams, Morizo shared the following comment:
“As a driver myself, even though no one ever mentions it when I speak with other drivers, I could sense these reservations between us.”
On that occasion, he made a distinction between his positions as Toyota’s chairman and driver Morizo. This time around, an “ordinary car-loving guy” was added to the mix.
Now that this “ordinary car-loving guy” is able to help racing drivers achieve their dreams, the inhibiting atmosphere may be starting to clear.
Setting the stage for a starring role
When answering questions from reporters, Morizo again spoke openly about racing drivers and his first meeting with Team Principal Komatsu.
Cars bearing the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing name will take to the track from the upcoming United States Grand Prix, to be staged on Haas’s home soil in October.
