LexFather

Despite massive investment, Toyota’s Formula 1 efforts have so far failed to yield significant results. This could all be about to change as Toyota is to supply a second team with its powerful and reliable 2.4 liter V8 in 2007. The new team is Williams, which is no stranger to Formula 1 success having powered a succession of Grand Prix greats to championship victories. The breaking news is that the engines will be badged Lexus.

The deal is understood to be only for engine supply, not full sponsorship. Frank Williams, the team owner and principal, has, however, signed a new title sponsor: Philips, which will bring the financial muscle the team needs to get back into contention.

One of the most consistently successful teams of the F1 grid, Williams has notched-up a string of constructor titles as well as driver championships for a succession of legendary drivers including Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

After BMW split from Williams to set up its own team for 2006 with Sauber, Williams was left without a major engine manufacturer supplier. But, after what initially appeared as if it would be a lean year for the veteran F1 team, the boys from Grove are still in the groove and presently lying 6th in the Constructors’ standings – behind Sauber and Toyota arch-rival Honda. Meanwhile, Toyota’s own team is languishing in 8th place – an unimpressive position given it has the largest budget in F1 and two excellent drivers.

The Lexus engine deal with Williams will certainly put pressure on Toyota’s own team to raise its game. But if Williams start achieving the kind of results Toyota bosses want, full team sponsorship for Williams-Lexus is likely to follow.

Expect an official announcement around June 25, at the Canadian Grand Prix. So far, there’s no word on Williams 2007 driver line-up.

Richie

Cool news!!
Been hearing these rumours for a long time now.

Stage3

iTrader: (3)

I've been hearing on Fox Radio that Lexus will OFFICIALLY announce their entry into the F1 circuit when the Toyota team gets their first win of 2k7. Doesn't make much sense, but I have heard dumber things...

ST430

Coincidence with the upcoming GT500?

I think not!

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

It would be interesting if the team Toyota provides engines for beats the factory backed team which will probably happen. What I don't get is how the author of that article can mentioned great past Williams drivers and not mention Ayrton Senna. Probably the best F1 driver ever and the center of one of the darkest moments in F1 history as well as for Sir Frank Williams.

foofighter

glad it's official now rather than a rumor...

AJ

Good news

UberNoob

this is awesome!!

so the same drivers too?

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

I heard comments on SPEED about the Lexus entry.

It's a bummer for me to wear my Toyota/Panasonic branded clothing, with their current progress in F1 is waining.



I can't wait to see Lexus branded F1 clothing gear available. I will be all over it.

UberNoob

yeah ill be all over that too

i hope that barrichelo can race for williams
and maybe get fillipe massa on board too

should toyota spend more money on better drivers?
yeah
get rid of ralf schumacher? yeah

F1Driver

Are you sure it's not the cars that's yielding poor results?

foofighter

there have been discussions during the races where they have said that the way the toyota's chassis is different on how they cant dial in more camber like the other teams can. So basically their chassis is in need of some tweaking...they'll probaby start working on the new 07 chassis now

UberNoob

cars too
and the new chasis design didnt do much for them either
kinda sad to see all that money getting wasted into not much of a result
where as Honda is doing much better

2ndchance

I was gonna say. Ralf seems to provide, at the very least, a consistent showing. He doesn't necessarily have the talents of Alonso or the history of his brother, but he still has a good showing virtually every time he goes out. The Toyota cars just never seemed to have the ability to hang with the big boys. To be honest, if Lexus can provide a superb car, as they did in the Rolex series, I hope that they forego Massa, and take up the rumors of Raikonnen moving teams, and make them a reality. The Iceman would be a solid competitor if he could just get some better equipment under him.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Williams using the Lexus engine will be a good match. The engine should be reliable and among the top 3-4 in HP. The current Toyota engines have been pretty good and reliable, but the chassis suck. The problem Toyota will have I believe is out of the gate I bet the Williams/Lexus team will be much more competive than the Toyota factory team. That simply wont look good for Toyota. What I would worry about is Toyota knowing this provides Williams slightly detuned engines under the Lexus name to keep the factory team competitive. I sure hope they don't do that though, but either way the factory Toyota team is going to look pretty bad unless they have a 180 turn around next year.