OCTOBER 30, 2002

Toyota learns from the lessons of 2002

Toyota has announced a restructuring of Toyota Motorsport GmbH organization based on the lessons that it learned in 2002. The company has appointed Briton John Howett as its new president starting in January in order to give Ove Andersson the chance to concentrate completely on Formula 1. Andersson will be team principal of Toyota F1 and Vice-Chairman of Toyota Motorsport, leaving Howett to run operations in Cologne and managing the 550 members of staff who belong to the team.

"During Toyota's F1 debut year, I combined the race-related management at Grand Prix and the general management of TMG," said Andersson, "but I have now come to the conclusion that I should focus on the race activities and the negotiations with our partners and other stakeholders in the F1 world. I am sure I can count on him to manage the company in Cologne."

Howett is 50 and has been with Toyota for 25 years including a period when he worked as Toyota Team Europe's rallying coordinator between 1977 and 1980.