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LONDON - Toyota have condemned as "malicious scaremongering" media reports that they could withdraw from Formula One if the team do not improve significantly in the next two years.
The speculation was triggered by team boss Tadashi Yamashina saying in Toyota's annual motorsport report that he had been given two more years to get the team on the winning track.
However, Toyota Motorsport president John Howett told Britain's Autosport magazine on Thursday that Yamashina was merely stating his personal position and the company remained committed to the sport.
"In Barcelona in 2006 we initially signed a non-binding agreement with the other manufacturers to stay in F1 until at least 2012," he said.
"We later transformed this into a binding agreement with (Formula One's commercial supremo) Bernie Ecclestone - something some others have still to do."
Howett conceded the team's performance was closely monitored by Tokyo.
"A lot of the company's senior executives really like to win so, if anything, we face a passionate pressure to perform. The media reports of the squad withdrawing are pure, malicious scaremongering," he added.
Toyota have yet to finish a race higher than second place since their Formula One debut in 2002 and last season they scored just 13 points in finishing sixth overall.
They would have been seventh had McLaren not been stripped of all their constructors' points for a spying controversy involving leaked Ferrari data.
The Cologne-based team have been testing their new TF108 car in Spain but some observers in Jerez last week were already questioning its performance and suggesting a radical overhaul could be necessary before long.
Howett said those fears were also unfounded.
"TF108 is exceeding our expectations," he said. "It is extremely good and we have no intention of introducing a B spec car."
- REUTERS
