Toyota moves its meeting to November 8th

It appears that Toyota is scheduled to announce on November 8 its plans regarding its future in the premier discipline of motorsport, Formula One.

It was expected that the Japanese automaker’s decision on whether to continue funding its Cologne-based team would not be known until the famous council meeting in Tokyo a week later, on November 15.

The racing budgets for Toyota for the following season are always approved in advance by the board at the end of the year, leaving some experts and fans fearing that a separate announcement was deemed necessary before 2010.

The announcement on November 8 was revealed by Auto Motor und Sport Magazine, and the British newspaper The Independent also expects bad news to come from Toyota later in the week.

«Japanese car manufacturers as well as manufacturers are questioning what they can now gain by spending hundreds of millions of yen participating in Formula One, » stated Tatsuya Mizuno, automotive analyst at Mizuno Credit Advisory.

If Toyota had to choose to withdraw from Formula One, it would automatically create a spot for Sauber, still awaiting a vacancy on the 2010 grid.

However, this would be bad news for Kamui Kobayashi, the Japanese F1 rookie who impressed Toyota with his two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

The young 23-year-old driver told journalists before leaving the Yas Marina circuit that he doesn’t have the budget to fall back on GP2 in 2010. “I will probably return to Japan to work maybe with my father in his sushi restaurant,” Kobayashi stated. “I’m back to the same situation as two months ago.”

This could also explain why Timo Glock refused offers from Toyota to drive for the team in 2010.