Ove Andersson

Swedish rally winner who built Toyota Team Europe and was the first head of Toyota's Formula One program

Ove Andersson

Swedish rally winner who built Toyota Team Europe and was the first head of Toyota's Formula One program

Ove Andersson grew up on a farm near Uppsala, dropped an engineering course to apprentice with a blacksmith, and found his way into rallying through a car repair shop. In 1971 he took the Monte Carlo Rally and three other events in an Alpine A110, helping Alpine to the manufacturers' title, and in 1972 his co driver at Monte Carlo was a young Jean Todt.

His own team, Andersson Motorsport, became Toyota Team Europe, which he moved to Cologne in 1979 and which won world rally titles in the 1990s. Toyota bought it in 1993, and Cologne then turned to Formula One. Andersson oversaw the new team through its first car in 2001 and its first racing season in 2002 before retiring in 2003. He died on the 11th of June 2008.

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