Toyota to pull out of F1, raise output - media

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor will announce on Wednesday a plan to pull out of Formula One racing after this year, the Mainichi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The reported withdrawal comes as the auto industry starts to stabilise after a sales crunch in the wake of the financial crisis.

The Yomiuri newspaper said Toyota has raised its global production plan for the year to March 2010 by 13 percent to about 7 million vehicles from 6.2 million forecast in February.

Toyota said it was checking on the two reports.

Government steps around the world to buoy new car sales have helped revive sales, while the carmaker's efforts to reduce the level of inventories have borne fruit, the Yomiuri said.

Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, has forecast an operating loss of 750 billion yen ($8.3 billion) on revenues of 16 trillion yen for the full year to next March. It is scheduled to report second-quarter results on Thursday.

(Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani)