If you feel that Toyota hasn't exactly set the world on fire with its NASCAR effort, take a gander at what they're up to in Formula One: a whole lotta nothing. Whereas manufacturer success in stock-car racing can sometimes simply be a matter of buying the winningest team and then burning up a ton of cash on space-age testing equipment that the humbler teams are unable to afford, in Formula racing all the teams flaunt mega-bucks technology, so it's a lot harder to claim victory by just out-spending your opponents. As a result, despite having dumped $2.5 BILLION into its F1 program since its debut in 2002, Toyota has yet to score a single win, and its highest season finish has been fourth. The 2008 season, which kicked off last Sunday with the Australian Grand Prix, is truly a make-or-break one for the manufacturer's racing program. Top execs have issued a two-year ultimatum for improvement, and the team is hoping to turn things around through a return to its more traditional consensus-based management style (as opposed to the drill-sergeant leadership favored in the F1 world) and by application of its kaizen philosophy ("continuous improvement") that drives all sectors of its company (i.e., world domination). Let's hope Toyota turns a corner soon, because its underwhelming performance in F1 is expected to start suffering from "diminishing returns." In other words, Toyota benefits from the huge worldwide exposure provided by the sport, simply by being out there; but continued losses are going to start harming brand credibility if they continue much longer.
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