Toyota Weeps

A number of commentators have wondered why Tadashi Yamashina, who runs the Formula One racing effort for Toyota, became so emotional a few days ago when he announced that Toyota would be pulling out of the world’s premier racing organization. Obviously, this was a blow to Toyota’s high-performance pretenses, coming awkwardly on the heels of its debut of a $400,000 Lexus supercar at the Tokyo Motor Show. But it could also be more signs of cracks in Toyota’s legendary management culture. Could it be that the gray-suited men of Toyota City have grown weary of producing ultra-reliable car after ultra-reliable car, but having mastered the mid-market sedan, gnash internally at the prospect of never achieving the mythical heights of Ferrari or Porsche?

Unfortunately, F1 has been something of an expensive debacle for Toyota, which followed Honda in exiting the sport. (Honda’s team was revived as Brawn, and its lead driver, Jenson Button, won this year’s world championship, and Brawn won the manufacturer’s title—so the Toyota team could come back to life under a new name and management scheme). It’s the perception that Toyota threw away money on F1—money that could have been better spent on, oh, I don’t know, designing better floor mats—that may have led to Yamashina’s tears.