Toyota has announced that they will have a completely different driver line-up for next year.
There has been quite a bit of speculation that Allan McNish — who’s contract expires at the end of this year — would not be back next season but most people thought that Mika Salo would be returning as he still has a year to run on his contract. Not so said Toyota as Salo “agreed” to end his stint at the team early.
Both drivers had been hired as development drivers last year as Toyota prepared for their Formula 1 debut but now that the cars have been proven to be fairly competitive — on power at least — there is apparently a feeling that they need some higher profile names in their cars as they try to move up to the next level and compete with the more established teams.
Current BAR driver Olivier Panis has been confirmed for one of the empty seats but there is no solid news yet on who will land the second.
The rumour mill is still favouring Newman-Haas CART driver Cristiano da Matta for the second seat but Penske IRL pilot Helio Castroneves will reportedly be testing for Honda in the future.