TOYOTA KEEN TO FIRM UP ITS DRIVER OPTIONS
Team boss Latvala considers the future with 2022 part-timer Ogier
Toyota doesn’t want to lose Briton Elfyn Evans and would allow Sebastien Ogier to pick and choose the events he contests in the World Rally Championship next season.
Speaking to MN, Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala admitted that he’s resigned to Ogier going part time from 2022. But he confirmed that the Japanese manufacturer is prepared to change its policy that currently prevents its factory drivers from undertaking partial programmes to prevent the reigning World champion from joining a rival.
“At the moment we have a fantastic driver line-up and our target is to keep the same drivers,” Latvala told Motorsport News. “Sebastien has said he would like to do some rallies or even half of the championship [in 2022] so we are going to negotiate with him and then see [if] we need a driver that will do the second half of the championship.
“There are certain events he really enjoys and would like to drive next year. Our policy is we have wanted a driver who will do the full season, but we need to remember that if we want to fight for the manufacturers’ championship, it’s a very good asset to have Sebastien in one of the cars to bring the points. It would be a very good option that you use Sebastien and then one other driver and select the events between them. That would be the target.”
Latvala explained that he would be open to an external recruit to share the season with Ogier if it’s decided that Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota’s development driver who is not currently eligible to score makes’points, isn’t ready to step up to full factory status by 2022.
“Taka has been taking nice steps forward and I can see in the future he will be one of the top three drivers in the official team, but is he ready next year, that I can’t give the answer. And do you want to put him under that pressure because he doesn’t have so much experience in a World Rally Car? These are the subjects we have to discuss internally and decide if we need to consider a driver from outside this team.”
Asked by MN if there are suitable candidates available, Latvala said: “It’s more limited now Hyundai has selected its drivers. But there are still drivers in the market who will be suitable for our team. At the moment, we don’t have a date [to make an announcement] but we now need to hurry up this subject a little bit.”