Toyota repeats vow to ignore test ban

McLaren boss Ron Dennis had led a chorus of calls for the Japanese giant to follow the same rules as the rest of the grid and heed the eight-week embargo that starts after the last race and runs through November and December.

But as teams assembled for the German Grand Prix today (Thursday), Toyota's motorsport boss Ove Andersson insisted it would test as usual through this period as it prepared for its F1 debut next March.

"People are saying we will gain an unfair advantage over the other teams if we test for the two months at the end of the season," said Andersson. "But I do not agree with that at all because we are a new team. So far, we have not participated in any race whatsoever whereas other teams have been racing for years and years.

"By the end of this season, they will have done 17 races and we will not have done any at all. We have just been doing some testing, so I can't see any unfair view on this."

Andersson said he had cleared his stance on the subject with the sport's governing body, the FIA.

"The rules only apply to teams contesting the championship and we aren't doing that yet," he said. "I consulted the FIA about this matter in November last year and I got it confirmed that according to the sporting regulations, paragraph 65, we can test until the end of this year. After that, we have to follow the rules for the participating teams."