The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, believes that the pre-event test ahead of Rally Mexico is very important to his team considering the lack of Yaris's speed on gravel slow rallies.
The Yaris WRC and GR Yaris Rally1 lack speed on slow gravel rallies such as Sardinia as Toyota drivers could not match the pace of Hyundai drivers. This fact can be proved by the latest results of Rally Italia Sardegna in which only Sebastien Ogier managed to win this event with Toyota back in 2021 whereas Hyundai has dominated five times there with Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Ott Tanak.
Rally Mexico will host the first gravel round of this year's championship and returns to WRC calendar after a two-year absence from World Rally Championship. It will be a challenge for WRC teams with the hybrid cars as the mechanics must do some modifications to the engine mapping due to the high altitude and temperatures.
"I think for Mexico and the gravel test which we are going to do it is very important because last year we were suffering on those conditions where it was a hard surface with the hard tyres", Latvala said.
"This combination is something where we were lacking speed so this next test before Mexico is important".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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