Rumours are intensifying that Toyota is poised to escalate its re-entry into Formula 1 through its growing partnership with Haas.
Despite the American team's entrenched technical alliance with Ferrari, Haas recently signed a deal with Toyota Gazoo Racing, injecting a distinctly Japanese flavour into the squad—especially under the new leadership of Japanese engineer Ayao Komatsu.
"This team doesn't exist without Ferrari," Komatsu told Japan Times. "What Toyota is bringing to us is in the areas that Ferrari can't help us, by the regulations."
Shifting global conditions could now pave the way for Toyota to expand its role.
Just hours ago, Haas Automation, the team's parent company, announced a "dramatic decrease in demand" for its machine tools, blaming Donald Trump's sweeping new import tariffs.
Days earlier, Komatsu hinted at openness to a broader collaboration with Toyota. "Of course, we are thinking about what we can do short term, medium term, long term, but really we are still at the stage of understanding each other," he said.
Toyota Gazoo boss Masaya Kaji tempered expectations of an immediate transformation into a full works team.
"(Leaving F1) closed the door for our people, drivers, mechanics, engineers, for them to challenge the top category, Formula 1," he said. "So the first thing is people's motivation is a great thing for us and for technology, I think that will be from now. It's just the beginning."
