OCTOBER 18, 1999
Toyota to grab 12th team status for 2002
The company is expected to announce in December that it will enter Formula 1 at the start of 2002, taking advantage of the FIA's recent decision to keep open a 12th team slot. Toyota will have to pay $48m as a guarantee that they will be on the grid in 2002 but this will be paid back with interest as soon as the team begins competing.
The company did confirm that it will be using its own chassis and engine and it is virtually certain that the entire operation will be based at the Toyota Motorsport headquarters in Cologne, in Germany. The company has already done a considerable amount of recruitment with ex-Ferrari engineer Luca Marmorini and Ilmor's Max de Novelis having already been employed to design an engine for the company. This will not be ready before the autumn of 2000 and will then probably spend a year being tested before the team enters F1 in 2002.