TOYOTA WE CAN WIN 2018 WRC TITLE
Stunning monaco performance fires up japanese firm
Toyota team principal Tommi Makinen has warned his rivals to be ready for a Yaris WRC onslaught from the next round of the World Rally Championship.
Makinen was delighted with a double podium – behind winner Sebastien Ogier – at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally last week and the four-time world champion Finn said that result confirmed the pace and potential of his squad in 2018.
Makinen told Motorsport News: “This was the strongest result for our team. It will be tougher for Ogier to win in Sweden, this is our territory.”
Toyota’s double Monte Carlo Rally podium eclipsed both of its 2017 wins to become the squad’s best result since its World Rally Championship return, according to team principal Tommi Makinen.
Makinen had nothing but praise for everybody in the Puuppolabased team, adding that the pace the Yaris WRC showed through the French Alps confirmed its credentials in this season’s title races. The four-time world champion singled out Ott Tanak for particular mention after the Estonian ran event winner Sebastien Ogier close until the final day when he settled for second on his debut with Makinen’s squad.
Tanak’s team-mate Jari-matti Latvala was third with Esapekka Lappi only dropping out of fourth when he went off the road briefly on the final stage on the season opener.
Makinen told MN: “This was the strongest result for our team. We were not at home on this rally, we were at home last year for Rally [Finland] and we were strong there, but here we are away.”
Makinen added that he was already looking forward to getting Ogier on ground more familiar for Toyota.
“It’s tougher for Ogier to win in Sweden, this is our territory,” he said. “Our drivers are thinking this: we know Sweden, we compare last year’s car and we know where we are – we are stronger. The others are too, but we know where we are. We compare last year’s suspension parts, for example, and we know the work we have done since last year, it’s a lot better now.
“Jari-matti won Sweden last year, he really performed and I’m sure he will go very fast on that one. He really wants to win in Sweden, I think it’s going to be a very interesting battle with these three drivers [of ours].”
Toyota’s efforts in landing second and third place on last week’s opening round was enough for them to join M-sport Ford at the top of the manufacturers’ table – the first time the Japanese marque has led the standings, although Latvala led the drivers’ race after Sweden last year. Makinen says the team’s confidence is building towards lifting one or two championships in November.
He added: “If we continue from Sweden, I think Mexico should be already far better than last year. Now we have information from those [high-altitude] conditions, the car and we found more on the engine side. We are very, very
confident we can be fighting for the titles. Jari-matti and Ott fighting for the drivers’ and now we have shown we can have all three drivers on the podium and that makes [the] manufacturers’ title possible as well. And that tells a little bit about the level of the drivers, apart from Esapekka on the last stage in Monte Carlo, there were no mistakes. They are all at a very, very high level.”
Talking about Tanak’s arrival, Makinen admitted he was surprised at the speed with which he found his feet in the Yaris.
“Everybody was really surprised with what he did,” said Makinen, “but he couldn’t do this alone, so we have to say a big thanks to the whole team for the massive support they gave Ott. He had to learn the car pretty well to do this after just four days of testing.”
Makinen’s opposite number at Hyundai, Michel Nandan, said the opening round had confirmed what everybody thought about the pace of the Yaris.
Nandan said: “Toyota for sure is a hard competitor. They improve a lot the car already last year and they work between the season. As well as this they have a really, really good driver line-up and here we see they are on top with three cars up there. They are really, really a strong competitor for us.”
Makinen said the early effort in the season had immediately lifted some of the pressure which had troubled the team last year.
“One of the best things is that we can be taking less pressure,” Makinen said. “We feel more comfortable with all this data from last year being analysed and we know where we are and what we can do and what we could have done better – this makes the whole team feel more comfortable.
“We showed here in Monte Carlo that we knew what had to be done and we did it – this is the result.”
Talking about his second place on his debut, Tanak said: “I’m quite relieved. It was a bit of an unknown before the rally, I had no idea where we would be. The rally was improving step-by-step and we were enjoying it more and more.
“When the conditions got tricky, I had a good feeling in the car and we had big support from the team – they gave the maximum.”
Despite warning Tanak it might take a while to settle into Toyota at the end of last year, Latvala said he wasn’t surprised at the immediate speed he showed.
The Finn said: “We saw exactly how quick Ott Tanak could be from this rally last season, when he only lost the second place because of a problem. The only question was about how quickly he could settle in to the car, but from the shakedown we could see this wasn’t going to be a problem for him.
“I’m not so surprised because the philosophy of the Yaris is similar to the Ford. When I drove the Fiesta, I got the similar feeling when I jumped in this car, but the Volkswagen was completely different.”