Toyota Motor has decided to follow Honda and BMW out of Formula One racing to save costs as the Japanese carmaker braces for its second straight annual loss, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday.
Akio Toyoda, the Japanese automaker's president, is expected to announce the move later on Wednesday.
Toyota's decision deals a fresh blow to F1, which has been battered by scandals, management disputes and an exodus of sponsors and car manufacturers amid the global economic downturn.
It adds to the challenges facing Jean Todt, the former Ferrari team boss who won a bitterly contested election for president of the Federation International d'Automobile, the motorsport's governing body, last month.
On Monday Bridgestone, F1's exclusive tyre supplier, said it would abandon the sport after its contract expires at the end of the 2010 season.
F1 teams spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to stay competitive on the technology-intensive circuit. Toyota has few trophies to show for its investments, however, and speculation that it would quit had been growing since Honda announced its exit last December.
Toyota, which is the world's largest car manufacturer, suffered a Y766bn ($8.5bn) net loss last year and expects to lose money again in the current year to March 2010.
Other motorsports have also suffered during the downturn, with Subaru, Mitsubishi and Suzuki leaving the world rally championship and Kawasaki withdrawing its MotoGP team.
© The Financial Times Limited 2009
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