Haas F1 Partners with Toyota Gazoo Racing
Technical partnership brings race teams together looking to improve performance.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team announced last week its new technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR). With the American squad being one of the smaller teams competing in F1, they are constantly working to improve performance and stay competitive. The partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing brings many benefits that will help the team move up the grid.
Original discussions of partnership between Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu and Toyota’s Motorsport boss Masaya Kaji were an idea at first, but after talking more and understanding each sides objectives, it was clear moving forward made sense for both sides.
With the partnership announced, Haas and Toyota are not waiting, with the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas being their first race together. Toyota Gazoo Racing branding will be seen on the car liveries when they line up on the grid for round 19 in Austin, Texas Oct 20.
Benefits of the Partnership
What this means for Haas F1 is that working with Toyota opens up a wealth of resources that are available to them. Speaking to media, Komatsu said Haas is “lacking certain resources and hardware capabilities to understand certain things”. Toyota has a facility in Cologne Germany which is home to their World Endurance Championship race team and their motorsport activities in Europe, so they will be able to provide additional support and expertise.
Working together, they are planning to build a simulator at Haas’s UK facility in Banbury England. Toyota’s extensive experience in sim operation will be a big benefit as their current agreement to use Ferrari’s sim in Maranello presents logistical challenges. This allows the team to get started very quickly while keeping everything in-house.
For Toyota, the sim program allows their staff to learn and gain knowledge from Haas in F1 operations. Similar to the young driver programs that other F1 teams have, this collaboration also gives Toyota the opportunity to develop and run its young drivers. Both the simulator and TPC (Testing Previous Car) programs, will give Toyota engineers experience working alongside Haas’s test team and mechanics, while drivers will get to sample two-year old machinery during private tests.
Private testing also gives Haas a chance to train and build up its race operations and backup staff. The alliance is a huge boost to both brands on both the technical and commercial sides.
Overall, this is a positive step in the right direction where both Haas and Toyota can gain valuable knowledge and experience from each other to further improve their racing programs. It will be exciting to see what progress is made in the races and season to come from this partnership.