Haas F1 reveals its Toyota Gazoo-flavored 2026 livery

Everybody got very excited when Toyota upped its involvement with Haas F1 this year by becoming its title sponsor, but I think it was clear from the jump that this was going to be a confusing development when the branding in the team name was obscured as “TGR Haas F1 Team.”

Things got much worse, of course, when Toyota revealed at an absurd launch event that it would be splitting its motorsports operations into two. Toyota Racing is now the name of the central factory-run racing operations run out of the Cologne facility where the WEC team is, where the engine programs are, and where the people working with Haas are, too. Gazoo Racing is now for more customer-ish-flavored programs, such as the rally program, which is “supported by Toyota Racing.” I guess that’s what NASCAR and Supercars cars are going to be badged as, too? Anyway, you can see why it would be confusing, then, for Toyota to announce “TGR” branding for its F1 partnership the same year.

Today Haas revealed the car — which looks very good, I might add — and it has “GR” all over it. Nary a “Toyota” in sight. What are we to make of this? Well, surely this is more of a customer relationship; Toyota is giving Haas people, expertise, and facilities, but it’s not building them a chassis (Dallara) or a power unit (Ferrari). I guess we have to think about the GR branding as a sort of essence of going racing with Toyota in spirit, and a race car can’t say “Toyota” on it unless Toyota itself is going racing.