Tsutomu Tomita

pRo · Post 27 Apr 2007, 06:12

What does everyone think of his move? Toyota claims it's a normal move for a guy in his age and whatever...but I can't help thinking it's because of the results, or the lack of them. Toyota can't possibly be happy with the way things have been going, though they keep saying so.

Mika Salo was already fast enough to comment that he thinks Tomita was one of the main reasons for Toyotas poor success. He also says he's surprised that he got to keep his job as long as he did.

ketanpaul · Post 27 Apr 2007, 07:56

The trouble with Toyota, in my opinion has always been its leadership. As I said before in another post, Japanese leadership is a strange way of leading and courtesy etc are very important. Mistakes cannot be pointed out openly and there are some other stupid stuff too. So until and unless Toyota changes its team strucuture giving leadership to someone like Flavio or David Richards, I really dont see them going ahead.

I dont think Tomita's leaving has got anything to do with the results. This is just one of the strange rules these guys have, which is to introduce planned changes from time to time, and keep people moving around different positions.

f1.redbaron · Post 27 Apr 2007, 15:20

I don't think that it has anything to do with the results, either.

A while back, I was reading an article about him, which said that one way or the other, Tomita will withdraw from F1 after the 2007 season. If I remember correctly, it has to do with his age and the Japanese labour laws (I'm not sure what they are since he is only 62, 63?).