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How long until Toyota wins a Grand Prix?

June 29th, 2009

Jarno Trulli, Britain, 2009Despite being one of the most well-funded teams in Formula One, Toyota have still not won a Grand Prix; something that every other team on the grid besides Force India have managed to do.

Toyota’s debut season was in 2002 and, despite scoring a point in their first race in Australia (when half the field was wiped out in the first corner), the team had little success until 2005 when, after scoring points in nearly every race, they finished second in the Constructors’ Championship.

It has now been seven years and although Toyota have committed to racing until 2012, the bosses in Japan must be wondering when their massive investment will translate into a win.

But is seven years such a long time to go without a win in Formula One?  Well, yes, actually.  While teams have come and gone in the past without their drivers ever standing on the top step, when you compare Toyota to the other teams on the grid at the moment their development begins to look a bit stunted.

Here is a table showing the debut year and maiden win year for each of the current F1 teams:

Team Debut year Maiden win year Years before win
BMW Sauber 2006 2008 2
Brawn GP 2009 2009 0
Ferrari 1950 1951 1
Force India 2008
McLaren 1966 1968 2
Red Bull 2005 2009 4
Renault 1977 1979 2
Toro Rosso 2006 2008 2
Williams 1978 1979 1
Toyota 2002

I suppose you could argue that Toro Rosso actually took 23 years to score a maiden victory, if you include the Minardi years, but then Minardi never had a budget of $400m.

Image: Toyota

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