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Haas will enjoy Toyota’s first tangible contribution to its Formula 1 team this week with its first-ever private testing programme at Jerez.
The presence of Toyota junior Ritomo Miyata alongside Haas 2025 drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman at the test is an obvious connection between the Japanese manufacturer and Haas.
And the test itself would not be happening at all without Toyota’s involvement – marking this the first significant benefit to Haas beyond some stickers on cars.
When Haas announced its tie-up with Toyota Gazoo Racing last year, it marked the first official and direct involvement Toyota’s had in F1 since shutting down its works team at the end of 2009.
TGR branding appeared on the Haas F1 cars from the United States Grand Prix weekend onwards, and Haas ran Toyota’s sportscar driver Ryo Hirakawa in last year’s post-season Abu Dhabi test.
By that point, the Haas and TGR announcement was two months old. But as Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu made clear that weekend, any gains were a long way off – and if anything, the arrangement was detracting from Haas’s output because it was taking time and effort to get it going.
Asked if the TGR deal had assisted with Haas’s strong end to 2024, Komatsu replied: “How quickly do you think those things are going to have an impact? You’re announcing it, you think the next day parts are going to be on the car? No, no.
“That kind of collaboration takes time. At the moment [December 2024], we are in the very early stages of actually setting up the project, et cetera.
“So, it's actually a dip, because we haven't actually increased our number of people, but we have to set up the project. People are working more.
“It has nowhere near got to the stage where we can feel any benefit. In fact, we are even more stretched at this minute.
“It’s a dip stage, which is normal, we just need to get out of that and get onto the stage where we can stabilise it, but that's going to take several months.
“To feel the effect on the track, it's going to take a year at least.”
THE FIRST GAINS
Operationally, the gains start to be enjoyed as of now, with Bearman driving on Wednesday and Ocon on Thursday. Miyata will have seat time at the end of each day.
This is the first time since Haas joined the grid in 2016 it has been able to conduct private testing. Until now the financial and personnel cost of utilising F1’s ‘testing of previous cars’ (TPC) rules has been prohibitive.
The Toyota deal’s changed that. It was specifically mentioned by Komatsu last year as something the deal would allow Haas to finally do, and they have wasted no time in putting a programme together.
Getting Ocon and Bearman in the 2023 Haas ahead of pre-season testing is a chance for a head start.
Ocon’s acclimatisation following his switch from Alpine can continue after his appearance in the post-season test, and Bearman can run with the team he has already – handily – raced for twice in F1 as reserve last year.
Both will be with their respective 2025 engineering teams for the first time, which is a useful benefit. And Miyata gets his first F1 runs. So, it’s win-win for Haas and Toyota.
The TPC programme, much like the first driver-in-loop simulator that the deal finally allows Haas to install at its Banbury headquarters in the UK, is something that confers a tangible benefit to both Haas as a team and Toyota as a partner, as its junior drivers can be incorporated into such programmes.
The simulator will be a longer-term project, the TPC running is expected to be quite expansive - Haas will try to do as much as it can but the exact plan is undecided. Beyond that, as Komatsu indicated last year, improvements in Haas’s technical capacity with development items and production times may start to be felt towards the end of the season and should assist with the 2026 car, which is a significant design and manufacturing undertaking given the overhaul of the car and engine rules and the fact testing will begin in January next year.
TOYOTA’S PLANS
In terms of Toyota’s fledgling F1 roster, Hirakawa – who was on McLaren’s books last year, is now an Alpine test and reserve driver, and may yet come to have some involvement with Haas again – is not a realistic F1 prospect. Miyata might be.
A multiple champion in Japan, including a rare Super Formula and Super GT double in 2023, he switched to racing outside his home country last year dovetailing a tough rookie Formula 2 season (in which he finished 19th) with a race-winning European Le Man Series campaign and Le Mans 24 Hours debut in the LMP2 category.
He was also a reserve for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship. Like with Hirakawa, Toyota may just be making F1 connections to improve one of its leading sportscar proteges, but Miyata has more time and opportunity on his side.
Incorporating him into its F1 plans is a far more likely advancement for Haas and Toyota than an escalation in the details of its partnership.
Right now, both are satisfied with the initial terms of the technical arrangement, although it will take time to optimise and may evolve in the future.
Toyota and TGR also have no plans to engage further in the running or ownership of an F1 team, or switch to being an engine supplier, at present. Like other manufacturers have often engaged with, there are technical studies ongoing and an observation of which regulatory direction F1 may go after its next engine cycle that begins in 2026, but that is it.
The likelihood of Toyota starting a full programme of its own again from scratch is slim to non-existent. Expanding a partnership or purchasing a team might be more realistic, eventually. The Haas/TGR deal is an ideal toe in the water and may potentially become a first step towards something more grand.
It would still need a huge commitment, though. The Haas model is dependent on extensive Ferrari supplies, not just the engine and gearbox, and changing that would require significant investment in, and restructure of, its team and factories.
This would even go for, hypothetically, becoming the Toyota works team somewhere down the line and having an even more extensive partnership with an organisation like TGR.
