Qualla: Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Menzel, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the western edge of Cologne, in the Marsdorf industrial district, there is a long low building most people drive past without noticing. Inside it Toyota fights Europe. Rally cars are stripped to bare carbon and rebuilt in days. Le Mans Hypercars are bench-tested through twenty-four simulated hours of stress before they ever turn a wheel in France. From 2002 to 2009, Toyota's entire Formula One operation was run from this site: 139 Grands Prix, three pole positions, 278.5 championship points, and not one victory. The building has been called Andersson Motorsport, then Toyota Motorsport GmbH, then Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe. In January 2026 it was renamed Toyota Racing GmbH. The names change. The work does not.

Image: Peter Menzel | CC BY-SA 2.0

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe: From a Swede with a Celica

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tennen-Gas, CC BY-SA 3.0. It started in the autumn of 1972 when a Swedish rally driver named Ove Andersson was offered a Toyota Celica for the RAC Rally. Andersson was already a known quantity in European rallying. The Celica was a curiosity. The result was good enough that by 1973 Andersson Motorsport, h...

Image: Tennen-Gas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe: The Celica Years

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wrc60, CC BY-SA 3.0. Toyota Team Europe's rally years are the stuff of WRC folklore. Hannu Mikkola won the team's first rally, the 1000 Lakes in Finland, in August 1975 driving a Corolla 1600. In September 1987 the team moved into the larger Cologne premises it still occupies and unveiled its first f...

Image: Wrc60 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe: Le Mans Hurts

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit nabtifal, CC BY 2.0. TMG entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998 and 1999 with the Toyota GT-One, a closed-cockpit prototype so beautifully made it qualified second in 1998. The 1999 race broke hearts in Cologne. Martin Brundle's number 1 Toyota suffered a high-speed puncture on the Mulsanne Straight...

Image: nabtifal | CC BY 2.0

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe: Formula One Without a Win

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morio, CC BY-SA 3.0. After 1999 Toyota told its Cologne engineers to switch sports. From 2002 to 2009 TMG built and ran Panasonic Toyota Racing, Toyota's full Formula One team. 139 Grands Prix. Thirteen podiums. Three pole positions. 278.5 championship points. And not a single race victory. TMG also ...

Image: Morio | CC BY-SA 3.0

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe: The Hybrids

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morio, CC BY-SA 4.0. Toyota returned to sportscars in 2012 with the TS030 Hybrid, the first car in a lineage that would eventually finish what the GT-One started. The TS030 took three wins in its debut World Endurance Championship season. The TS040 of 2014, the TS050 from 2016 with its 2.4-litre twin...

Image: Morio | CC BY-SA 4.0