Toyota insist Haas deal not an F1 comeback

Toyota and Haas announced a technical collaboration that will see the Japanese car manufacturing giant providing technical services, including design, manufacturing support, and engineering assistance, to enhance the American F1 team's performance.

However, Toyota insist they will not make an F1 return, with their chairman, Toyoda, addressing the media: "Please make sure that tomorrow’s headlines don’t read: ‘Toyota Finally Returns to F1.’

"Rather, it would be great to see headlines and articles that inspire Japanese children to dream of the possibility that they, too, could one day drive the world’s fastest cars," he added.

But Toyoda did not get his wish granted as all media outlets labeled the deal as a Toyota return to F1, and while it may not mean a full return, for now, it is anyone's guess how the situation will develop following the introduction of the 2026 F1 regulation changes and whether that would lure Toyota into a full involvement with an F1 power unit and the whole package.

But for now, they insist that is not the case, as Toyoda explained further the reason behind the deal with Haas; he said: "There’s something I sense when talking to professional racing drivers. It’s that everyone wants to drive the world’s fastest cars. I think that’s the way drivers are.

"That said, I’m the person who quit F1. So I think that drivers were never able to frankly talk about it in front of me. It was like there was always this inhibiting atmosphere in our pit.

"In January this year, I said in front of everyone that I had finally gotten back to being an ordinary older guy who loves cars," Toyoda pointed out. I think that, somewhere deep in his heart, that ordinary older car-loving guy Akio Toyoda had always regretted having blocked - by pulling out of F1 - Japanese youths’ path toward driving the world’s fastest cars.

"That said, with the media watching my every step, I dare to add that I still believe my decision as the president of Toyota to withdraw from F1 was not wrong," Toyoda concluded.

Toyota competed in F1 between 2002 and 2009 with their own works team, and while they did not win races, they managed three pole positions, three fastest laps, and 13 podium finishes.

They had a state-of-the art wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany, which was used by McLaren since 2010 until the team commissioned their own wind tunnel at Woking last year.