Toyota Thinking About Full Return To Formula 1

Toyota is thinking about a full-scale return to Formula 1.

Following its technical partnership with Haas that began in 2024, the alliance started with Toyota’s branding appearing on Haas cars towards the end of last year's championship. The scope of the partnership includes collaboration on Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programs and a new F1 simulator at Haas’s UK base in Banbury.

It was Toyota's first significant foray back into Formula 1 since it sold off its factory team in 2009.

Initially, Toyota had maintained that the partnership with Haas was limited to fostering engineering expertise and potentially creating pathways for its drivers to enter Formula 1.

However, Masaya Kaji, director of Toyota Gazoo Racing, has now hinted there could be more. In an interview with Motorsport.com, Kaji stated that Toyota is actively studying both current F1 technologies and the upcoming 2026 power unit regulations.

“We are, of course, studying the technologies for 2026 and even current technologies,” remarked Kaji. “I feel we’re gradually moving in that direction.” However, he emphasized that any decision to establish a full works team would require careful consideration of resources and alignment with Toyota’s broader technological objectives.

Kaji was clear that a full-scale return to F1 is unlikely in the near future. “We’re not at a stage where we would redirect all our resources there,” he said, citing the significant financial and staffing demands that a factory team would entail.

For now, the Haas partnership remains central to Toyota’s F1 ambitions, but with both General Motors, Volkswagen, Honda, and Ford all joining the grid with the next ruleset, the Japanese automaker may feel it needs a seat at the table as well.

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