Fear Toyota, like you fear Chelsea FC

By Nick Sparkes
September 24 2005

You think of football, and you think of Chelsea. The Russian owned Football club has become the team to beat ever since Roman Abramovich started pumping millions into the squad. Now Ferrari’s Ross Brawn fears the same could happen to Toyota, who are set to have another huge budget for 2006.

Already Toyota have one of the biggest budgets in Formula One, with the money helping to buy some the most highly respected people in the business. Ever since the team announced their second windtunnel, rumoured to cost around $60 million, eyebrows have been raised at the sort of money Toyota intend to spend on Formula One.

Ferrari’s technical director Ross Brawn, is worried that Toyota will become the Chelsea of Formula One; “We have to be careful in formula one that we don't end up with a spending - rather than an engineering and driving - contest." This coming from a team which spends a huge amount of money on testing, as they failed to agree to the 30-day test limit which is designed to limit the amount of money spent on track.

Toyota have always stated they are here to win in Formula One, but with their budgets increasing, their spending becoming more vast, even a team as well budgeted as Ferrari is worried they will not be able to compete against the Tokyo based manufacture.