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Toyota Ends Collaboration with Hispania F1 Team

Hispania Racing F1 Team (HRT F1) will not be using Toyota technology in the 2011 season of Formula One. Although several media reports hinted that the Spanish squad is set to sign an agreement with the Japanese company for the use of certain facilities at their Cologne factory, a statement from Toyota Motorsport GmbH earlier this week brought light into the matter.

Hispania was aiming for a boost up in their technical package by using for the 2011 campaign of F1 Toyota's unraced TF110 challenger. Additionally, they hoped to have access to Toyota Racing's technologies, while also use certain parts of their Cologne factory.

Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) confirms that all cooperation with Hispania Racing F1 Team (HRT) has been terminated and will not resume,” said the press release from Toyota, while adding that the reason for this termination is the fact that Hispania failed to live up to its financial claims.

TMG retains all intellectual property rights to its current F1 car and is completely free to pursue other projects and support new customers for its high-performance engineering services. TMG regrets that HRT has not met its contractual payment obligations and will pursue all available options to reach a satisfactory conclusion to this matter.”

Prior to their withdrawal from Formula One, the Japanese from Toyota Racing F1 Team had already developed a challenger for 2010, which was eventually never used. When F1's new tire manufacturer Pirelli turned to Toyota for a testing car in 2010, the company decided to hand the Italian tire maker their 2009 racer – the TF109 – avoiding to hand over a car that could have potentially be used by HRT in 2011, namely the TF110 – it would have led to an unwanted conflict of interests.

As the situation unfolded recently, it's likely that the TF110 will continue to be unused for 2011 also, unless someone else steps in an decides to begin negotiations with Toyota.
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