Tokyo: Toyota’s Fuji International Speedway gave up the hosting rights for the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix in 2010 and beyond on Tuesday to cut costs amid the global economic downturn.

The circuit, majority held by the world’s biggest automaker, had been scheduled to alternate each year with Honda-owned Suzuka.

A Honda spokesman said it was up to Formula One organisers to decide on the fate of next year’s race, adding that Suzuka had made no decision beyond the planned hosting in 2009 and 2011.

Honda pulled out of Formula One as a team and engine provider in December.

Fees for hosting rights cost the Toyota circuit about $20-30 million, a source said on condition of anonymity. That excludes other operational outlays such as staffing the event.

“It’s been only three years since we announced in March 2006 that we would be hosting the F1 Japanese Grand Prix,” Fuji Speedway president Hiroaki Kato said in a statement.

“That we’re making this difficult decision so soon is truly heart-wrenching,” he added.

Toyota has put several projects on hold to save cash after it posted its first operating loss since its founding last year. It has forecast that loss to balloon to a record $8.92 billion in the business year to March 2010.

The company’s own Formula One team, based in Germany, has yet to win a Grand Prix despite pouring money into the sport since its debut in 2002.