Team Toyota
Japan
TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WORLD RALLY TEAM
A new entrant to the championship in 2017, the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT represents the long-awaited WRC comeback for Toyota - a name synonymous with rallying success in the 1980s and 1990s. The Japanese brand can trace its rally roots back to 1957 when it entered the Mobilgas Round Australia Rally. But it was 1975 when Toyota really made its mark, when Hannu Mikkola won Finland’s 1000 Lakes Rally at the wheel of a factory-backed Corolla.
Team Summary
Toyota established a motorsport base in Cologne, Germany, and went on to claim more WRC victories, including three consecutive Safari Rally wins. In 1990, Toyota had its first WRC champion driver in Carlos Sainz, and in 1993 it became the first Japanese brand to win the WRC manufacturers’ title.
The squad proved the surprise of the season. A sensational second place for Latvala at the opening Rallye Monte-Carlo could have been dismissed as a fluke – before he followed it with victory at the next round in Sweden. Esapekka Lappi added a third win at the fastest rally of them all, Neste Rally Finland.
By the end of its factory-backed activities in 1999, Toyota had collected three manufacturers titles, (in 1993, 1994 and 1999) and four drivers’ titles (two for Sainz and one each for Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol). Toyota’s return was confirmed in January 2015 by the company’s president, and passionate rally enthusiast, Akio Toyoda. A team base was established in Finland and Toyoda put former world champion Tommi Mäkinen in charge of developing a Yaris ready for a 2017 comeback.
The success continued as new signing Ott Tänak joined Latvala and Lappi and the trio lifted the manufacturers title in 2018. Twelve months later Tänak secured his maiden drivers’ crown.
The team had an all-new line-up in 2020, featuring Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and rookie Kalle Rovanperä. In a compelling season finale, Ogier overcame Evans to claim his seventh drivers’ title.
Toyota retained the same line-up for 2021 and enjoyed an even more successful season. Ogier landed the drivers title, co-driver Julien Ingrassia secured the co-drivers crown in his final year and the team also claimed manufacturers honours. The 2023 season was just as successful, with Toyota triumphing again in the manufacturers series by a dominant 116 points over Hyundai. Rovanperä delivered three victories to secure back-to-back drivers' titles while team-mate Evans finished runner-up after taking wins in Croatia, Finland and Japan.
Ogier stepped back to a part-programme in 2022, sharing a GR Yaris with Esapekka Lappi while Evans and Rovanperä headed the team’s title defence. It turned out to be yet another dream year for the squad for its new GR Yaris Rally1. Not only was it succesful in defending its manufacturers crown, but Rovanperä also clinched the drivers title - becoming the youngest driver in WRC history to do so. Toyotas driver line-up has been revamped for 2024. Rovanperä and Ogier will both carry out part-time campaigns while Evans and Japanese hotshot Takamoto Katsuta will start all 13 rounds.
In 2015, Toyota announced that it would return to the WRC after a 17 year-absence in its pursuit to make ever-better cars. A team base was established in Central Finland and the Jyväskylä region, in the small village of Puuppola, where Tommi Mäkinen was named as a team principal of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team. Because I love cars, I can understand what the car wants to do. If you have a good feeling for the steering wheel and wheels you can go fast. That’s one of the key elements in rally cars and this is how you build up a driver’s sense of the car.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT only had one year to develop an entirely new car from the ground up. Building the Yaris World Rally Car was about far more than just theory. It was also about crafting a vehicle to fit each and every road based on Genchi Genbutsu: the Japanese principle of going to and directly observing a location and its conditions in order to understand and solve any problems faster and more effectively.
The most important ingredient in creating a winning vehicle is to have a group of people with the same goal who all find joy in what they do. We want to show the world a team coming together under Toyota’s ’I love cars!’ spirit as we work diligently towards our goals.
Current Season Stats
