12:23 pm, December 27, 2008
TOYOTA has said it will not follow Honda’s lead and pull out of F1 – despite its recent loss making announcement.
Toyota recently said that this year it will make a loss of £1.1bn – its first in 71 years.
However, the principal of Toyota’s Formula One team has told The Times that the car maker plans to stay in the sport.
Despite the sport costing Toyota £2bn since it joined the sport in 2002, team boss John Howett said it was unlikely to pull the plug.
‘I think we are managing the business properly, and I am confident that we will be there,’ he told the daily paper.
He added that Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota’s president, had reaffirmed the company’s commitment to Formula One.
Toyota has so far failed to win a race in F1.
