Toyota is to follow Honda and BMW out of Formula One as Japan’s top carmaker battles slumping car sales. Akio Toyoda, chief executive, apologised to fans on Wednesday and said Toyota had “tried everything” to streamline an F1 programme that is believed to have cost at least $300m a year. Toyota’s withdrawal with immediate effect is a fresh blow to F1, which has been weakened by scandals, management disputes and an exodus of sponsors and car manufacturers amid the global slump.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 4:36 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with Toyota. Edit this entry.