SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

Cregan to leave Toyota

Richard Cregan is leaving Toyota F1 at the end of November. The 48-year-old Irishman, who runs the team, has been with the organisation for 24 years, after joining Ove Andersson's organisation as a rally mechanic. Cregan is moving to a new project, the details of which are yet to be made public.

He became operations manager for Toyota's programmes in the World Rally Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours and became General Manager F1 Operation in 2002 before stepping up to Team Manager in 2004. Richard will be replaced as Team Manager by Jens Marquardt, who has been at Toyota Motorsport GmbH since 2000,

Jens played a key role in developing Toyota's first Formula 1 engines and became Group Leader Engine Track Test Engineering in 2003. He was also a significant figure in the smooth start-up of Toyota's engine supply to Williams and has been Manager Engine Customer Supply since August 2006.