JANUARY 3, 2002

New Toyota engine rumored to be very powerful

THE new Toyota V10 F1 engine is rumored to be producing prodigious horsepower figures and we have heard suggestions in recent days that if the current development continues the team could be in a position to qualify in the top 10 in the early races of the year. This would not be a huge surprise in that Toyota not only bought in some of the top engine research men from Ferrari but also appears to have had a relationship with Mecachrome which also helped BMW to develop its highly-impressive V10.

The general consensus of opinion has always been that Toyota will struggle in F1 and this is still likely to happen from an organizational point of view but a good engine and a moderate chassis will help the team make more of an impression than had been thought possible. The interesting thing will be whether or not Toyota will be able to keep the people it hired in the longer-term as stability is an issue when a team is based outside motor racing's "Silicon Valley". Toyota seems to have as much money as it needs so finance will not be an issue but you can only buy the best engineers for a limited period of time. Once they have become rich they require different motivation. Ferrari has been successful in keeping its people by running the best driver and winning. This is the priority of most of the top people in F1 and that is going to be virtually impossible for Toyota in the short term.