Toyota admit F1 quit fears

Toyota revealed today they came close to joining Honda in quitting Formula One.

The world's biggest carmaker is set to suffer its first ever operating annual loss but will stay in the sport having reduced its F1 spending, which was around £210million last year.

Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina said: "Our Formula One budget was cut again and again from its original figure. It was cut again after Honda's announcement last December they were leaving F1 and within a month the figure was reduced again after Toyota's end of yearly earnings target was revised.

"I'm not able to put a figure on how much the budget was slashed by but in all my time at Toyota I have never seen cuts like it."