Rally Japan was a test for Katsuta's future as Latvala reveals

The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that Takamoto Katsuta's future depended on his result on his home event as there was the possibility for him to have a partial programme next year.

The Japanese star had only one finish at the podium position back in Kenya where he finished second overall while he had four restarts under the SuperRally regulations until the end of Acropolis Rally. After the eleventh WRC round, Katsuta agreed with Toyota to miss Rally Chile in order to have a reset for the final two events of the championship. Katsuta returned back to the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally1 after Rally Chile and managed to finish in fourth place in Central Europe and in Japan. After his home event, Toyota confirmed its driver line-up for the 2025 season where Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanpera, Katsuta and Sami Pajari will compete in all WRC rounds whereas Sebastien Ogier will continue with his part-time programme with the team.

"I must say, in one sense, Rally Japan was a little bit like a test as well", Latvala said.

"It’s not good to say this, but sometimes you need to see a bit of a change. 

"I remember once a good engineer said to me that, ‘Jari-Matti, you can do a mistake, but if you do the same mistake again, that’s just stupidity’.

"I think with Taka, we know with what he’s been doing he’s really fast. 

"But if there’s been similar mistakes happening, that is the moment we need to learn from them. 

"And that was the point that I think he proved, that he can learn from it. 

"That’s the most important thing.

"Now it was the moment that we also need to know that Taka needs to take a step forward on his career.

"Something had to be changed.

"We had a break in Chile. 

"We were going through a little bit [of a] different strategy for him for Central European Rally and also then for Japan. 

"He needs to drive consistently, he needs to take a little bit off the speed, but he needs to bring the car home. 

|And then, now in Japan, when he had done his job really well, we said before the powerstage, now it’s a free hand. 

"You can go for it. 

"If it goes wrong, you still have the next season".

Source: DirtFish.com

Photo Credits: Toyota