The organisation traces its origins to Sweden, where Ove Andersson founded Andersson Motorsport for his own rally career. His relationship with Toyota began in 1972, and from 1973 the company was appointed as the responsible party for Toyota's works entries in the World Rally Championship, competing under the name Toyota Team Europe. The operation relocated to Brussels in 1975, then to Cologne in 1979, where it was established as Andersson Motorsport GmbH. In 1993, Toyota Motor Corporation acquired the company outright and renamed it Toyota Motorsport GmbH. At that point TMG employed around 300 staff from 17 nations.
Under the Toyota Team Europe banner, the Cologne organisation built a remarkable record in the World Rally Championship. Hannu Mikkola won the first TTE rally in August 1975. Carlos Sainz claimed the Drivers' Championship in 1990 using the Celica GT-Four ST165, and again in 1992 with the newer ST185 variant. Juha Kankkunen took the Drivers' title in 1993, and Didier Auriol followed in 1994, with Toyota also winning both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' championships in those years.
In 1995, TTE was banned from the WRC for twelve months after it was discovered that the ST205's air restrictor had been fitted with an illegal bypass mechanism and spring-loaded concealment devices. Toyota withdrew from rallying at the end of the 1999 season to redirect TMG resources toward Formula One. A return to the WRC eventually arrived in 2017 with the GR Yaris Rally1, though by then only engine development was handled in Cologne, with car development and team management based in Finland.
From 2002 to 2009, TMG operated the Panasonic Toyota Racing Formula One team, contesting 139 Grands Prix. The team achieved 13 podium finishes, three pole positions, and accumulated 278.5 championship points. TMG also supplied its Toyota F1 engines to the Jordan team in 2005, to Midland F1 Racing in 2006, and to Williams from 2007 to 2009. Toyota announced withdrawal from Formula One on 4 November 2009.
TMG's sports car efforts produced some of the organisation's most iconic moments. The Toyota GT-One entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998 and 1999. In 1998, three cars qualified strongly but all suffered reliability issues. The 1999 edition was more dramatic: two cars were eliminated by tyre failures at high speed, including Thierry Boutsen's car being destroyed under the Dunlop bridge, while Ukyo Katayama drove a remarkable pursuit from dawn that nearly delivered overall victory before another puncture intervention; the car ultimately finished second overall and first in class.
TMG returned to sports car racing from 2011, initially as an engine supplier before fully re-entering with the Toyota TS030 Hybrid in the 2012 World Endurance Championship. Subsequent generations followed: the TS040 Hybrid from 2014, the TS050 Hybrid from 2016, and the GR010 Hybrid from 2021 under the Le Mans Hypercar regulations. The TS030 programme produced a fourth-place finish at Le Mans in 2012 with Davidson's car retired after a major crash, and a second-place result at the 2013 24 Hours with Sarrazin, Davidson, and Buemi.
TMG developed the TMG EV P001 electric racing car in collaboration with Cologne-based e-Wolf, based on a Radical sportscar platform and drawing on the KERS knowledge TMG had accumulated during its Formula One years. In August 2011 the car set a new electric vehicle lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife of 7 minutes 47.794 seconds.
TMG was renamed Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe in April 2020 and assumed full control of the World Rally Championship team from Tommi Mäkinen Racing in 2021. In January 2026, Toyota announced a further renaming to Toyota Racing, to be completed in January 2027. The Cologne facility's role across WRC, Formula One, and endurance racing over more than four decades established it as one of the rare motorsport organisations to compete and win at the highest level across entirely different racing disciplines.