Why do automotive manufactures race?
The desire to compete, improve and obtain
the ultimate victory may motivate many.
Others may take a more altruistic view,
and take the technology learned on the track to improve their vehicles to the
public.
And of course a few view the sport as the ultimate form of
advertising. However you may look at Formula One though, poor performance is
generally not the best way to achieve any goal.
Unfortunately for Toyota when push comes to shove in ultra competitive
Formula 1 scene, their efforts seem to consistently fall short.
Toyota entered the series in 2002 and has substantial backing and
engineering ability, so it seems they should place far higher than they actually do. The results this
season are further exasperated by the Williams’ team that in their first year
of using the same Toyota engine, is fairing better than the factory effort
despite a half of the budget. Why?
In March 2007 F1 Racing published its annual estimates of spending by
Formula One teams. The total spending of all 11 teams in 2006 was estimated at
$2,986 million. This conveniently had been broken down as follows;
|
|
2006 Budget
|
2006 Standings
|
2007 Standings
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Toyota
|
$418.5 m
|
6th – 35 points
|
7th - 9 points
|
|
Ferrari
|
$406.5m
|
2nd – 201 points
|
2nd - 211 points
|
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
$402m
|
3rd - 110 points
|
1st - 138 points
|
|
Honda
|
$380.5m
|
4th – 86 points
|
9th - 1 point
|
|
BMW
Sauber
|
$355m
|
5th – 36 points
|
3rd - 61 points
|
|
Renault
|
$324m
|
1st - 206 points
|
4th - 32 points
|
|
Red Bull
|
$252m
|
7th -16 points
|
6th-16 points
|
|
Williams-Cosworth
|
$195.5m
|
8th -11 points
|
5th - 18 points
|
|
Midland/Spyker
|
$120m
|
10th -0 points
|
11th - 0 points
|
|
Toro
Rosso
|
$75m
|
9th – 1 points
|
10th - 0 points
|
|
Super
Aguri
|
$57 m
|
11th -0 points
|
8th - 9 points
|
Taking the initial investment of $250 million for Toyota to enter the Formula One circuit in 2002 and assuming equal annual increases until
we reach the 2006 budget of almost $419 million we can see their progress
through the years in relation to expenditure..
Toyota historical placement
|
2002
|
$250m
|
10th
|
|
2003
|
$292m
|
8th
|
|
2004
|
$334m
|
8th
|
|
2005
|
$376m
|
4th
|
|
2006
|
$418m
|
6th
|
|
2007
|
$460m
|
7th (estimated)
|
Believe it or not, Toyota has made a very impressive expenditure
of over $1.67 BILLION coming into the 2007 season in the pursuit of the Formula
One crown! Truly an incredible accomplishment.
So what is the ultimate point of Formula One for Toyota and what did they gain?
Obviously, as we can tell from the results, winning through
competition was not a not a factor so we can rule that out.
How about bringing technology to the masses? As much as I
rack my brain, I can’t think of a single Formula One advance brought to the
street by Toyota. (I hope you can enlighten me on this though) However to give
credit, where credit is due, they do claim the new V10 in the Lexus LF-A was
inspired by their Formula One efforts. Hopefully the inspiration of this new
power plant isn’t simply limited to the number of cylinders it has.
Advertising? No doubt this has been a boon for them but to
spend over $2.1 billion dollars at the close of this season advertising to the
limited Formula One market is questionable at best.
While ee can all speculate the true motives of Tyota, but I think
many of us can agree, to the average buyer, the location of the cup holders in their Camry may be more important to them than Formula One.
So can you remind again me why Toyota is in Formula One?