Car maker’s involvement in the management of motorsport programmes has been thrust into the spotlight by the 'football manager' style turnover of senior staff at the Alpine Formula 1 team. It doesn’t take an expert to realise that seven team principals across 10 years for the Enstone team is not conducive in creating stability to be successful. The team could learn a lot from how Toyota has tackled the WRC, and in particular the passionate, yet unique way the boss of one of the world’s biggest companies, Akio Toyoda, manages his all conquering rally operation.
His mantra is a simple one but it goes a long way in explaining Toyota’s run to three WRC manufacturers’ titles (2020-2022) and four drivers’ crowns (2019-2022) since rejoining the WRC in 2017 after a 17-year absence.
“The people that are as close to the place where things are happening, they know the most, so I think we should let those people that know the most just do their job,” Toyoda tells Autosport. “I think that is the best. This is what I am doing here at the rally and also in the Toyota company too, it applies to both.”
Manufacturers go racing to first and foremost sell cars and to use the experience and technology honed in competition to develop even better road cars. Winning certainly helps achieve that goal. Of course, striving to achieve success in competition comes with a lot of financial investment and, equally, pressure to deliver.
Alpine put pressure on itself by setting out a 100-race plan to return to the front of the F1 grid, this laid out by its then-CEO Laurent Rossi, when the Renault team rebranded to Alpine in 2021. Despite not even being midway through this plan to fight for the world championship, its upper management decided to pull the trigger on a second round of personnel changes, with Otmar Szafnauer only lasting 18 months in the team principal job. The decision was the result of a disagreement between the management of the F1 team and the car maker regarding the speed at which it was travelling on this timeline.
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In comparison, since Toyota announced its WRC comeback, the only significant management change came in 2021 when four-time WRC champion Tommi Makinen, who helped initially set up the team, stepped aside to let Jari-Matti Latvala take up the team principal position.
Source: Autosport