Ferrari, Williams Used Toyota Wind Tunnel

Toyota withdrew from Formula 1 more than a year ago, but its immense investments into their Cologne motorsport centre seem to now pay off. Even though there is little work going on at their aforementioned facility, Toyota Motorsport GmbH has allegedly been used by two high-profiled F1 teams for the development of their 2011 single-seaters.

The teams in question are Williams F1 and Ferrari and, as rumor goes, six more squads are to follow shortly. However, their names have not yet reached the headlines.

As far as Williams is concerned, the British squad apparently used one of Toyota's two wind tunnels to develop some parts of their soon to be launched FW32. The info was revealed by German-language publication Speed Week and sounds a bit strange to be honest, especially since Frank William's team has a couple of wind tunnels of its own back at their Grove headquarters.

In addition, Ferrari seems to have also made use of Toyota's wind tunnel during the winter. According to the same publication, the Scuderia made this move due to the cost-cutting limitations placed on staff and wind tunnel time. However, a team is allowed to pay an outside party for extra wind tunnel work, therefore escaping the FIA restrictions.

Apart from the two wind tunnels, the Cologne based Toyota Motorsport GmbH has several other facilities available for external parties to hire. And Speed Week reveals that a bunch of teams will not hesitate to contact the Japanese company for use of their facilities.