Toyota Signs Up For Deeper F1 Involvement With Haas

Haas has secured its most consequential Formula 1 partnership to date, finalizing a title sponsorship agreement with Toyota that will rebrand the team as TGR Haas F1 Team beginning with the 2026 season.

The move marks a deeper integration between the small American outfit and one of the world’s largest automakers, expanding on a technical collaboration the two companies initiated in late 2024.

For Toyota, this arrangement represents a renewed push into Formula 1—but not as a factory team. Instead, the automaker is using Haas as a training ground for its engineers, mechanics, and young drivers, giving them hands-on experience inside an active F1 program. Toyota will also assume branding control of Haas’ Testing of a Previous Car (TPC) program, an increasingly important tool under modern F1’s testing restrictions.

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said the partnership has already delivered benefits behind the scenes, reinforcing the organization in ways that don’t show up on a stopwatch. “Our TPC runs have gone well, but just as important has been the personnel development happening quietly in the background,” Komatsu said. That includes a new Toyota-backed simulator being installed at the team’s UK facility ahead of the 2026 regulation overhaul. Komatsu also pointed to work underway on the driver development pipeline, an area Toyota has been aggressively cultivating across global motorsport.

Toyota Motor Corporation chairman Akio Toyoda framed the deal as part of a broader shift within the company, calling it an opportunity to prepare the next generation of Toyota talent for the demands of top-level racing. “Together with Gene Haas, Ayao, and everyone at TGR Haas F1 Team, we will build both a culture and a team for the future,” Toyoda said.

The revised TGR Haas F1 Team identity will debut on January 23 during an online reveal of the 2026 livery. Toyota replaces MoneyGram as the title sponsor after a partnership that lasted more than three years.

This article was co-written using AI and was then heavily edited and optimized by our editorial team.

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