Such a decision was somehow expected by the media, especially since the Japanese manufacturer decided to pull the plug on their F1 operations at the end of the 2009 season. However, recent reports linked Toyota to a potential sellout of its operations to Stefan GP (a Serbian outift) that could have save at least some of those 500 jobs already scheduled for the scrapping scheme.
“Andy Fuchs, the communications and marketing boss, told the German news agency DPA on Friday that a remaining 150 staff will stay employed for the site's ongoing projects, including sports tuning of road cars and the development of non-F1 racing cars,” said a report from the GMM news agency earlier today.
“The 500 departing staff will receive termination payments and partial salaries for up to a year,” added the report, citing the same Toyota official. Therefore, Toyota Motorsport GmbH has remained with only 150 employed people at Cologne.
Although terminating their operations in Formula One, Toyota repeatedly insisted it doesn't plan to sell its factory at Cologne, as it plans to set off programmes in lower series in the near future. As a result, Toyota also refused to sell the design of their TF110, the car which the team had already prepared for the 2010 season.
According to several allegations, Toyota received several offers for it – especially from the newly-entries – but still decided to keep it within the factory.
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