Motorsport: Gossip will be the downfall of society

A driver spins out in the Toyota Racing Series held at Pukekohe Park Raceway. Photo / Dean Purcell

The butterfly chaos theory (according to wikipedia) refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location.

The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. While the butterfly does not cause the tornado in the sense of providing the energy for the tornado, it does cause it in the sense that the flap of its wings is an essential part of the initial conditions resulting in a tornado, and without that flap that particular tornado would not have existed.

A bit like gossip you could say.

There has been a number rumours swelling around that the Toyota Racing Series may be heading for private hands as Toyota New Zealand are getting ready to jump ship.

I'll tell you all something right now - gossip will be the downfall of society, as we know it.

Facts don't account for anything nowadays, just a mate of an even smaller-minded mate (who inevitable has a grudge against someone) can pass comment about something and all of a sudden it's gospel.

We're even seeing stories entering mainstream press sourced from the devil's handiwork generally known as Facebook, for goodness sake.

Toyota have a five-year plan to back the TRS series and has no intentions of selling the series, whole heartedly, of to any private faction but will always be on the lookout for further sponsorship. The butterfly effect has come from someone reading about Toyota Motor Corporation's decision to pull the pin on their Formula One team.

What the head office decides to do with F1 has nothing to do with the TRS in New Zealand. In fact, Toyota has been public in its support of grass roots motorsport and senior management has been heard to say it wants to get back to the grass roots of the sport.

There's no denying the motor industry worldwide is in the deep dodo and there has to be a lot of global belt tightening. Toyota were never going to win an F1 title anyway, so why bunce a shed load of money on something that really has no relevance to their core business.

While pulling out of the multi-million dollar arm of the sport, Toyota are still keen on developing young race car drivers, as evident by TMC stating, when they announced their F1 withdrawal, "In motor sports, TMC will not only race in various categories, but will also actively contribute to further development of motor sports by supporting grassroots races and planning events in which it is easy for people to participate."

So there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth and to reiterate that the TRS Kiwi arm of grassroots motorsport is still very much active, they have sent a couple of TRS cars up to Japan to help in their own young driver academy development programmes.

The one thing, however, to be learned in F1 is, it's not a place for mainstream car manufacturers to get involved in. Honda has gone, BMW has gone, Ford has gone, Jaguar has gone, Toyota has gone and Renault is looking to get out. Who knows how long Mercedes will last once the bills start piling up?

F1 racing is for extremely wealthy individually owned teams to play. These people are passionate about the sport and they're not in it to make money as a goal. Car manufacturers' are run by grey people, in grey suits, whose only purpose in life is to pour over spreadsheets. Accountants have no interest in the passion of motorsport, only if it can garner a return in the next quarter - and it's a shame, but nearly all big businesses are now run by bean counters who no vision beyond the next quarter.