Toyota pulls the plug on Formula One team

Toyota, the world’s leading car manufacturing company has confirmed this week that it is pulling its Formula One team next season, citing increased financial losses. The Japanese business will now concentrate their efforts on its core business of manufacturing cars.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda told the BBC that his team had no option but to withdraw, blaming "the current severe economic realities" affecting the world. It was a tough decision because we are betraying the expectations of fans," Toyoda continued. "I apologise to our fans from the bottom of my heart. I made the decision myself."

This decision is somewhat understandable as it has been revealed that Toyota has recorded record losses of £2.9 billion for this financial year and are poised to reveal more losses when it posts its results to September today.

There is now no Japanese team left in F1 as last year Honda also pulled out of the sport. They were replaced by Jenson Button’s Brawn and were repaid as the English driver brought home the 2009 Driver’s Championship.

Toyota first entered the competition in 2002 but since that time have failed to win any of the 139 races contested, although they finished a respectable fifth in the 2009 constructor’s championship. This comes as another warning to Formula One about the decadence of the sport with bosses urging a rethink on the high costs of running the competition. Other teams may be forced to withdraw from F1 if it does not evolve to be more sustainable in the future.