Toyota Formula One boss Ove Andersson says he is being shunned by the other teams, but it’s because they are threatened by his team’s arrival.
Toyota Formula One boss Ove Andersson is annoyed that the other teams in the sport are shunning his fledgling team and believes they are feeling threatened by the Japanese manufacturer’s entry into the sport.
Toyota is due to enter Formula One next year after spending 2001 testing in France.
“We are not welcome in Formula 1 and none of the other teams will have us as a member of their little club,” Andersson told Swiss magazine Motorsport Aktuell. “The only ones who were positive about it were FIA president Max Mosley and (F1 supremo) Bernie Ecclestone.”
Toyota has enraged its competitors by announcing on Tuesday that it will not be limited by the sport’s winter testing ban.
A testing ban begins immediately after the last race of the season in Japan on October 14 and lasts until the beginning of December, but Andersson has declared that his team will continue running right through the winter.
He says Toyota had made an agreement with motorsport’s governing body, the FIA to enter the world championship before the testing ban was introduced.
McLaren’s managing director Martin Whitmarsh said: “Once Toyota’s entry for next year’s world championship is accepted it is in the same contractual situation and is obliged to abide by the same rules and obligations as everybody else.”
The team was also at the centre of controversy earlier this year when it poached Minardi’s technical director Gustav Brunner and BAR boss Craig Pollock is believed to have been annoyed by hikes in staff wages caused by Toyota recruiting one of his key staff members.
Andersson attended the Australian Grand Prix this year and was accused of using the trip as a recruitment exercise.
“Why should I do that in front of everyone?” said Andersson. “It would have been much cheaper to call those people than to fly to Australia. There is no reason to be angry with us. Other teams do exactly the same.”
Andersson also says he has been ignored by fellow team bosses. “They are not ‘available’ as they call it, when I phone them,” said the Swede. “The only ones I had contact with were Eddie Jordan and Jean Todt, who are old friends.”