Toyota has scheduled 8 November to announce its plans about the 2010
Formula One season, it has emerged.
It was expected that the Japanese carmaker's decision about whether to
continue funding its Cologne based team would not be known until the
much-vaunted Tokyo board meeting a week later.
Toyota's racing budgets are always approved in advance by the end-year
board meeting, leaving some experts concerned that a separate announcement
has been deemed necessary ahead of 2010.
The November 8 announcement was revealed by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport
magazine, and the Independent newspaper in Britain also expects that "bad
news" could be emanating from Toyota "later in the week".
"(Japanese) auto and auto-part makers are questioning what they can gain
now by spending hundreds of millions of yen in taking part in Formula
One," said Tatsuya Mizuno, an auto analyst at Mizuno Credit Advisory.
On the bright side, Toyota's withdrawal would make room for Sauber, whose
official application to race in 2010 will be automatically activated in the
event of a vacancy.
But it would be very bad news for Kamui Kobayashi, the Japanese F1 rookie
who has impressed Toyota with his two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
The 23-year-old told reporters before leaving the Yas Marina Circuit that
he has "no budget" to fall back on GP2 in 2010, after finishing sixteenth
in the F1 feeder category this season.
"I would probably go back to Japan to maybe work with my father in his
sushi restaurant. It was like that two months ago," said Kobayashi.
