Toyota announced that it will not host the 2010 Japanese GP at the company owned Fuji Speedway. The economic conditions and the company’s financial situation were cityed as the main reasons for the decision.
This year’s race is slated to be held at the Honda-owned Suzuka Circut, but for next season, Honda has said it does not have any idea where the race will be held, potentially infering that it will not host the race for two years in a row.
It is estimated that the company would outlay $20-30 million to host the event and executives thought that it was an excessive amount and was not good business. We think they are spending at least that much with NASCAR, and their F1 team budget, like most of them, runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is the latest in a string of decisions by Japanese companies to curtail racing operations. Mistubishi, Subaru, and Kawasaki have all exited the respective series that they were competing (and winning) in.
