LATVALA PLOTS DRIVING RETURN TO GET YARIS RALLY2 READY FOR ACTION
Jari-Matti Latvala is planning to aid the development of Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally2 by getting back behind the wheel.
The Toyota team boss, who mainly restricts himself to historic events when he does compete, is due to the contest September’s gravelbased Rally Hokkaido, the penultimate round of the Japanese championship.
Although the car, Toyota’s first Rally2 challenger, is not set to be homologated for international use until 2024, different rules apply for national events, paving the way for Toyota to enter rounds of its domestic championship this season.
“We have one year of testing and we need to keep working because you can’t be there with a product that’s not ready,” Finn Latvala told reporters on the Monte Carlo Rally last month. “The 2023 season is targeted for testing but we are going to run in the Japanese championship and Takamoto Katsuta’s father Norihiko Katsuta is going to drive it and there has been a little bit of speaking about [me] driving on Rally Hokkaido. I am not
100% committed but we are targeting that, and it would be fantastic to be there with the Rally2.”
Latvala, unsurprisingly, has high expectations for the Yaris Rally2, which he hopes will be used for action in the European and World championships from next season.
“Toyota has a great heritage [in rallying with the Celica and Corolla WRC] and there are a lot, a lot of people who want to drive a Toyota and Rally2 is a great class for the customers. We have a road car GR Yaris which is a great base car and there have been a lot of requests [from customers]. Toyota had customers [in rallying] back in the 1990s and these customers and, of course, the newcomers are waiting to get something they can drive.”