F1-Blog

Williams F1 have announced the much rumoured deal with Toyota for the supply of engines in 2007.

The three year deal was signed Wednesday night, and will give the team manufacturer support again after loosing the BMW engine partnership.

The team will run the same specification RVX-07/8/9 engines as the works Toyota team. Both sides of the deal are keen to stress however that this is an engine supply deal only, and not a development partnership. However with Toyota having two world class teams doing the development work things are bound to rub off.

John Howett (Toyota Motorsport President) said "We are pleased to be selected as the engine provider to Williams and look forward to establish a strong relationship with them, We look forward to both teams using each other as a comparative benchmark from which each can improve its own performance and to competing with each other at the front of the grid."

However the previous speculation had the Williams team running the engines branded as Lexus, however this seems to not be the case. Instead the Williams car will have a 'Powered by Toyota' Logo on the cowling instead, Toyota then hoping that the association with the Williams team will have the same influence as Ford enjoyed with the 'Powered by Cosworth' stickers that they used in Rally.

This will hopefully help the Williams team out with sponsors, as another rumour has the Budweiser sponsorship the team currently have pulling out sometime soon. 

Williams are also a proven race and title winning organisation, and Toyota are desperate to win before Honda, and it looks like in any way possible.

What is to become of the works team has not been mentioned, there will obviously be a good amount of rivalry between the two teams, as the Midland team that currently run the engines are not a real challenge. That too has not been mentioned, will Toyota keep up the supply to the Midland racing team? or will Cosworth take over there.