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Originally Posted by chernaudi
Why do you keep defending Toyota and going off on VAG? If Toyota didn't get bit in F1 they'd probably be spending well over $100 million a year, and we know even now they're capable of it.
If you want to blame VAG, you're also going to have to blame Toyota for being equally as gung-ho on hybrids and other expensive technology (no hybrids, no Toyota in the WEC and LM). Even the stuff on the TS050's engine probably has little production relevance and probably is also insanely expensive.
I don't see anyone lining up to spend what Toyota are alleged to be spending, which has variously been reported to be $75-100 million dollars this season.
Bash VAG all you want. Toyota have also been part of the problem on the budget front by spending multitudes more than anyone else aside from Audi Sport and Porsche did. The ACO screwed up with their "go big or go home" attitude towards hybrids and other "green image" technology at the expense of what made sense.
Again. Don't ask why VAG are gone and why Toyota might very well be gone soon. Ask why no one else came in? In this thread, I think that Akrapovic several times hit the nail on the head and back up points I already made many times.
Namely that you have a technology still new to motorsport, it was given an (IMO, unnecessarily huge) huge advantage, with huge performance incentives. And everyone wanted to get as close to the top as they could. That takes money and resources to get there fast.
No matter how you slice it, the ACO were sowing the seeds of their own destruction right there.
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I'm not defending anyone. I spoke the truth. Porsche and Audi both spent close to $200 million a season. Toyota don't even spend half that and they know that's still too much. The reason they had to put up that sum is because of the VAG two. If you had the spending a reasonable amount there would be more competition because it wouldn't be an F1-lite in terms of budgets. Their F1 foray has no bearing on the wec program. Akio Toyoda and the financial crisis stopped Toyota's f1 program, not the 300 million they spent. Everyone in F1 spends that much in order to be top 5. That should not be the case here and it never should've been but for VAG. It doesn't matter if you're a fan of them or not, they spent way too much and killed the class. Now they're gone and things are starting to seem more interesting to new teams.