Now, Toyota is pinning its hopes on fully implementing its vaunted consensus-management style, which is out of step with the rest of the world of grand-prix racing, to breathe life into its half-billion-dollar-a-year F1 team.

When Tadashi Yamashina took over as Toyota's F1 boss last year, he began teaching his 650-member team of drivers, engineers, designers, mechanics and support staff that the key to winning can be found in the Toyota way, a set of management principles that helped the company grow from an obscure Japanese auto maker into a global auto giant.

"We encourage teamwork and we always have our minds set on kaizen," which in Japanese means continuous improvement, says Mr. Yamashina, who manages the team at its headquarters in Cologne.