Toyota Motorsport today announces that Tsutomu Tomita will
stand down
Toyota Motorsport today announces that Tsutomu Tomita will
stand down as Chairman and Team Principal at end of June 2007.
Tomita will be replaced by Tadashi Yamashina, current Toyota
Motorsport Vice Chairman.
Tomita, 63, has been based at Toyota Motorsport’s headquarters
in Cologne, Germany since 2003, but, as is normal for Toyota
senior executives following a long overseas assignment, he
will return to Japan in the middle of the year where new assignments
await him within the Toyota group of Companies.
Tomita will assume responsibilities for other activities,
and as is customary, these will be announced and confirmed
as the Board of Directors meetings and shareholders resolutions
are completed.
Tomita has been a driving force behind Toyota’s motorsport
involvement, having taken charge of motorsport engines in
1987, including those which subsequently won World Rally Championships
and claimed podium finishes at the Le Mans 24 Hours. He also
oversaw Toyota’s entrance into single-seater racing
in the United States, which saw a first CART series title
in 2002 and an IRL Indianapolis 500 victory on Toyota’s
debut in 2003.
He joined the board of Toyota Motor Corporation in 1996 and
took control of all motorsport activities, giving him a crucial
role in the establishment of Panasonic Toyota Racing in Formula
1. In the position of Chairman and Team Principal, he has
helped establish Panasonic Toyota Racing as an ambitious team
with the potential to succeed.
Tomita said: “Since 2002 I have been involved in Toyota’s
Formula 1 project which has been one of the most challenging
and exciting periods of my career. In fact the detailed preparation
for entry into Formula 1 started more than four years before
we entered our first race. I would like to thank all of those
involved in Toyota, Formula 1, at our sponsors and of course
at Toyota Motorsport who have welcomed, helped and encouraged
me as I have faced this challenge. I am pleased to pass this
on to Mr Yamashina whom I am sure will continue to build from
the platform which has been established over the past six
years. I am looking forward to celebrating Toyota’s
first victory in Formula 1 which I believe will happen sooner
rather than later, based on the technological capability and
competent team of people which has and is being established
in Cologne.”
Tomita’s role will be taken by Tadashi Yamashina, who
joined Toyota Motorsport as Vice Chairman in December 2006.
Yamashina, who is also a Managing Officer of Toyota Motor
Corporation in charge of the Motorsport Division and Motorsport
Business Management Department, has strengthened technical
development for the 2007 season since his arrival.
Yamashina said: “Tomita san has been involved in a
number of Toyota’s motorsport activities throughout
his career including Formula 1 from its very beginning. He
has been one of its central pillars over the last two decades
and I am both proud and pleased to succeed him. I will continue
the challenge he has pursued over the past years with the
same courage and applying vigorous creativity as we strive
to become a winning team in the worlds most severe and demanding
motorsport, Formula 1. Tsutomu is part of Toyota’s Formula
1 heritage and we will remain in close contact with him.”
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