Former Toyota driver shares 'biggest win' from failed F1 programme

Former Toyota F1 works driver Allan McNish has explained the 'biggest win' that came from the its failed works programme.

Entering in 2002, Toyota was part of the manufacturer boom in F1 at the turn of the 21st century, but despite investing hundreds of millions of dollars, it failed to win a single grand prix  before withdrawing as a result of the 2008-09 global financial crash. 

In late 2024, Toyota took its first steps back into F1 as part of a technical alliance with Haas, allowing engineers to get hands-on F1 experience, whilst the Japanese manufacturer is also supporting Haas in its first-ever Testing of Previous Car (TPC) running. 

Reflecting on the works programme, McNish, who drove for the team in its debut 2002 season, believes the engineering school the team created is its biggest legacy.

"It is very different now because at the end of the day, it is still Haas with a little bit of Toyota branding on it," McNish told media including RacingNews365.

"Then it was a full programme, the car and engine build-up was all based out of Cologne where they had the rally and Le Mans programmes.

"The biggest thing was that they had no cost cap, it wasn't as if money mattered at all, and you could spend your way through things, but clearly there were cultural aspects that hindered them, it was the question of the difference between Japan and Europe and also where they were based that didn't help them in the way they thought it would.

"But the biggest thing out of Toyota was that it was a fantastic engineering school for a lot of people, some very good people came out of it.

"Unfortunately, for them, they probably stopped a little bit too early for them to be able to deliver, and by the time they had gained all their experience, which was definitely not in year one, they were ready to deliver, but that is when the project stopped."