John Howett | |
---|---|
Born | 26 July 1952 |
Nationality | British |
John Howett (born 26 July 1952 [1] ) is the former President of Toyota Motorsport, and the Toyota F1 team.
Howett joined Toyota in the late 1970s as a team coordinator for Brussels-based Toyota Team Europe, run by former Toyota F1 boss Ove Andersson. Moving back to England in 1980, he worked for Toyota in after-sales service. In 1991, he returned to Belgium, and worked his way up to be Vice President for Toyota/Lexus sales and marketing.
In early 2003, Howett moved to Cologne, Germany, where he was made President of Toyota Motorsport, a position he has maintained until June 2010.
After a start to the 2007 season that saw Toyota maintain 5th in the constructors' standings after the first three races, Howett said the team were looking to chase 3rd placed BMW Sauber and break away from the front of the midfield bunch of teams, which would go a step further to fulfilling their pre-season ambitions. [2]
In 2009 Toyota announced that it would no longer be involved in Formula 1 racing [3] and this also meant that he could no longer be deputy chair of Formula one Teams Association (FOTA). [4]
In 2010 Howett was replaced as President by Executive Vice President Yoshiaki Kinoshita and his role changed to being an adviser. [5]
BMW has been involved in Formula One in a number of capacities since the inauguration of the World Drivers' Championship in 1950. The company entered occasional races in the 1950s and 1960s, before building the BMW M12/13 inline-four turbocharged engine in the 1980s. This engine was the result of a deal between BMW and Brabham, which resulted in the team's chassis being powered by BMW engines from 1982 until 1987, a period in which Nelson Piquet won the 1983 championship driving a Brabham BT52-BMW. BMW also supplied the M12/13 on a customer basis to the ATS, Arrows, Benetton and Ligier teams during this period, with various degrees of success. In 1988, Brabham temporarily withdrew from the sport and BMW withdrew its official backing from the engines, which were still used by the Arrows team under the Megatron badge. Turbocharged engines were banned by the revised Formula One Technical Regulations for 1989, rendering the M12/13 obsolete.
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is an international organisation with two primary functions surrounding use of the automobile. Its mobility division advocates the interests of motoring organisations, the automotive industry and motor car users in the fields of road safety and traffic circulation. The sport division is a governing body for many international motorsport championships and disciplines, including Formula One.
Ralf Schumacher is a German former racing driver. He is the younger brother of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher, and the pair are the only siblings to each win Formula One races.
Max Rufus Mosley was a British businessman, lawyer and racing driver. He served as president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body for Formula One.
Timo Glock is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He raced in Formula One for the Jordan, Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia F1 teams. He finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship in both 2008 and 2009, scoring three podium finishes.
Panasonic Toyota Racing was a Formula One team owned by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation and based in Cologne, Germany. Toyota announced their plans to join Formula One in 1999, and after extensive testing with their initial car, dubbed the TF101, the team made their debut in 2002. The new team grew from Toyota's long-standing Toyota Motorsport GmbH organisation, which had previously competed in the World Rally Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite a point in their first-ever race, Toyota never won a Grand Prix, their best finish being second, which they achieved five times.
The 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 56th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2002 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 2002 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a seventeen-race series that commenced on 3 March and ended on 13 October.
The Concorde Agreement is a contract between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the Formula One teams and the Formula One Group which dictates the terms by which the teams compete in races, and how the television revenues and prize money is shared. There have been eight versions of the Concorde Agreement, all of which terms were kept strictly secret: the first one was signed in 1981, with newer agreements being signed in 1987, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2009, 2013; the current agreement was signed in 2021. The secrecy was broken by racing journalist Forrest Bond, when the 120-page 1997 Concorde Agreement was published at the end of 2005 by RaceFax.
The Grand Prix World Championship (GPWC) refers to a number of proposed alternative world championship auto racing series to rival or replace Formula One. Founded in 2001, the GPWC was created as a tool to assist the companies in bargaining with Bernie Ecclestone for an agreeable extension to the 1997 Concorde Agreement, the contract by whose terms the teams compete in Formula One.
Neel Jani is a Swiss professional racing driver.
Robert Józef Kubica is a Polish racing and rally driver, competing for AF Corse in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship and for AO by TF in the 2024 European Le Mans Series. He previously competed for Team WRT where he won the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class. He was the first and, as of 2024, only Polish racing driver to compete and win a race in Formula One.
Oliver "Oli" Oakes is a British former racing driver, entrepreneur and team principal and director of Hitech GP. In July 2024 he was announced as Alpine F1 Team Principal for the remainder of the 2024 season onwards. He was the 2005 World Karting champion, and was once a part of the Red Bull Junior Team.
Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993. Sauber operated under their own name from 1993 until 2005 and from 2011 until 2018. They were known as BMW Sauber from 2006 to 2010 and as Alfa Romeo from 2019 to 2023 in partnership deals with BMW and Alfa Romeo, respectively. Sauber returned in 2024 as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, and is set to be the Audi works team from 2026 onwards, with the German outfit planning to acquire the Swiss team.
The 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 62nd season of Formula One motor racing, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over eighteen races commencing in Australia on 16 March and ending in Brazil on 2 November. The 2008 season saw the debut of the Singapore Grand Prix, which was held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Marina Bay, Singapore and was the first Formula One race held at night. The European Grand Prix moved to a new venue at the Valencia Street Circuit, in Valencia, Spain.
The 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 63rd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 60th Formula One World Championship which was contested over 17 events commencing with the Australian Grand Prix on 29 March and ending with the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 1 November.
The 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 64th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. Red Bull Racing won its maiden Constructors' Championship with a 1–2 finish in Brazil, while Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel won the Drivers' Championship after winning the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. In doing so, Vettel became the youngest World Drivers' Champion in the 61-year history of the championship. Vettel's victory in the championship came after a dramatic season finale at Abu Dhabi where three other drivers could also have won the championship – Vettel's Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.
Kamui Kobayashi is a Japanese racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing, Super Formula for Kids com Team KCMG, and part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 50 Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing. He also serves as team principal for Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe for their FIA World Endurance Championship team. Kobayashi previously competed in Formula One, Formula E, the GP2 Series, and the GP2 Asia Series. He became champion of the FIA World Endurance Championship alongside co-drivers Mike Conway and José María López in the 2019–20 season and in 2021, where he also won the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The FIA–FOTA dispute was a series of political clashes between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the now defunct Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) over proposed changes to the rules and regulations for the 2010 Formula One season. The debate began over the introduction of a budget cap and culminated on the eve of the 2009 British Grand Prix with the FOTA teams announcing their intention to form their own rival breakaway series. From that point onwards, the dispute was eased to the point at which a new Concorde Agreement was signed in August 2009.
Stefan Grand Prix was a proposed Serbian Formula One team named after its creator, Zoran Stefanović. The team was attempting to compete in the 2010 Formula One World Championship. Its initial application was one of those rejected in July 2009 and although the team persisted in its attempts to gain an entry, it did not appear on the final entry list published in March 2010. The team also applied unsuccessfully to compete in the 2011 and 2015 seasons.
The BMW E41 and P80 series is a family of naturally-aspirated Formula One racing engines, designed and developed by BMW, and introduced in 2000 in partnership with Williams, and continued through 2006, during their partnership with Sauber.