The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that his teams targets to field at least five GR Yaris Rally2 cars at Rallye Monte Carlo and admits that the first two rounds of WRC are the priority for them.
The Japanese team will enter in WRC2 class in 2024 with the view of contesting against the best car brands in rallying, such as M-Sport Ford and Skoda, and of expanding their activity to the national events apart from their Rally1 participation at the top level of the World Rally Championship. The new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 was tested by Kalle Rovanpera, Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta, Juha Kankkunen and Sebastien Ogier while Latvala had the chance to drive it at Rally Hokkaido two months ago and to win this round of the Japanese championship having Juho Hanninen as his co-driver. The team completed the test phase of the Yaris in all surfaces on the first quarter of 2023 and is ready to tackle the WRC stages in two months from now. So far, it is unknown which driver will get behind the wheel of the new Yaris in Monte Carlo, but it is speculated that Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure will have the chance to make their WRC2 debut in Alps as both of them are members of Toyota's WRC Challenge Program and were confirmed by the team that they will take part in a selected number of rallies across Europe in 2024.
"Next year we are planning and hoping to build between 40 and 50 cars in Finland", Latvala said.
"Our target is to provide five cars for Monte-Carlo, so we will try to provide pretty much four cars per month.
"We have a big list of people who are interested in purchasing the cars, but it’s not like we have been able to confirm their orders.
"First, I must say that the first two events are the most important for us, Monte-Carlo and Sweden, that we can provide the cars there for the top-level drivers".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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