LONDON: Formula One can expect Japan’s departed carmakers and companies to return eventually but it could be a long wait, according to championship-winning team boss Ross Brawn.

Brawn’s former Honda team pulled out last December while Toyota followed this month and Bridgestone, Formula One’s sole tyre supplier, have announced they will leave at the end of next season.

The Briton said that he suspected the Japanese would have a rethink some time in the future, once the global financial situation had improved sufficiently.

“They’ve obviously decided that this is how they need to respond to difficulties they are facing, but they have got a lot of history in Formula One, particularly Honda and Bridgestone, so let’s hope,” Brawn said.

“It will take a while, it’s going to take a few years but Honda’s was their second or third involvement in Formula One,” added Brawn, whose team use Mercedes engines and have been linked to a takeover by the German carmaker.

“Manufacturers look at the value to them of Formula One, there’s no sentiment I’m afraid. So when it’s viable they come in, and when it’s not they don’t.”

While Honda’s British-based team was a stand-alone operation rescued by a management buyout led by Brawn, Toyota’s is integrated within a car plant in the German city of Cologne and is set to be wound up.

Brawn was disappointed for his friends at Toyota, with the company pulling out only months after committing to the sport to 2012, and whose exit followed that of German manufacturer BMW.

However, he said it was inevitable that the tide of manufacturer involvement would ebb and flow.

“It’s a major sport and it (manufacturer involvement) will come round again. But luckily there is a lot of interest from privateers and they will sustain Formula One for a good few years,” said the former Ferrari technical director.

“I’ve been in Formula One for over 30 years and I’ve seen it go from total privateers to a huge number of manufacturers back to privateers and it just goes in cycles depending on the climate.

“There has always been a core group. Ferrari have always been involved and Mercedes have a long history of being involved and riding the occasional storm,” he added.

“I think there are some manufacturers that take a day-to-day view and unfortunately those are leaving now but they are being filled up by a lot of private teams.”

Despite the departure of Toyota and BMW, the number of teams on the grid is set to rise from 10 to 13 next season.

Meanwhile, the Formula One racing car in which Michael Schumacher captured his first World Driver’s Championship (WDC) title in 1994, is set to be auctioned for more than a million euros, it was revealed Tuesday.

The Benetton B194, which is ready to drive and comes complete with spare parts, is being sold by its owners on Internet auction house eBay.de and the bidding sailed through the one million euros mark on Tuesday.

Bids for the car passed the 1.6 million euro mark by 1200 GMT on Tuesday with the bidding set to close at just before midnight on November 16 for the car in which Schumacher won the first of his seven world titles.

The winning bid will incur an additional cost of 10,000 euros for shipping and the car is in the same condition it was in the 1994 season complete with sponsors labels while its Ford Cosworth engine has been overhauled.

The car comes with numerous spare parts for brakes, chassis and transmission, plus a laptop with software package to control the car’s computer, report Bild.

The car is currently in Toronto, Canada, and its sellers - identified only as Christian M. from Bad Homburg, central Germany, and Bernd M. from Toronto - are keen to find a new home.

Documentation from FIA’s engineers proved it competed in the 1994 season, in which Schumacher collided with Great Britain’s Damon Hill at the Adelaide Grand Prix in the final race of the season to win the season’s WDC title in controversial circumstances.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi will stay with Toro Rosso next season, the Formula One team said yesterday.

“I can confirm that we’ve signed Buemi for next year,” a spokesman said.

The Ferrari-powered team have yet to name their second driver, although 19-year-old Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari is expected to remain after replacing France’s Sebastien Bourdais last July.

“Dietrich Mateschitz bought this team to give young drivers a chance, and this is our philosophy,” team principal Franz Tost told the autosport.com website.

“We have to stick to this philosophy, and I’m quite confident that from the middle of next year onwards we will have a good driver line-up, because then Alguersuari will know all the tracks, and Buemi is increasing his performance already.”

Buemi, 21, was the top rookie last year with six points and some impressive performances.

Toro Rosso will also try out New Zealander Brendon Hartley in December, when teams are allowed to test only with young drivers.