PRESSURE OFF BUT EVANS VOWS TO FIGHT FOR WORLD TITLE
Welshman determined to hit back from under-performing 2022 season with Monte win
Elfyn Evans will begin his bid for the 2023 World Rally Championship crown free from any pressure from his Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala.
Evans, 34, starts the new season from Monaco’s Casino Square this evening (Thursday) desperate to right the wrongs of the winless campaign he endured in 2022, a year when his team-mate and former understudy Kalle Rovanpera became World champion aged 22 and a day.
For the second year of the WRC’s hybrid-based Rally1 era, Evans and co-driver Scott Martin can count on a revamped Yaris, which includes a newspec engine with a higher output and new rear-fender bodywork featuring a revised cooling inlet for the car’s hybrid system.
Despite a year of struggle and finishing a lowly fourth in the points having been a close runner-up in the previous two seasons, Evans can count on Latvala’s full backing.
“He doesn’t have pressure because he knows that Kalle is quick,” ex-factory driver Latvala told Motorsport News. “But the point is not to think about the others. He needs to focus on himself and that will be the most important thing.
“He found it hard to get comfortable with this new car, with the fresh regulations for 2022. There was less opportunities to play with the car. There were more limited things to do with the suspension and with the transmission. But he knows where the problem is. If you don’t know where the problem is, then you have a major issue.”
Welshman Evans, who was in the victory fight on last year’s Monte before he went off the road on Saturday afternoon, said: “I feel ready to go into the new season. Last year fell short of my own expectations personally, but we managed to make some progress and I’m hoping to be able to put better results together this season. The team is always working to evolve the car, and 12 months in to the Rally1 era we understand things a lot better. Like always it should be a competitive year but I definitely feel that we’re in a better place to challenge, and to fight for the title remains my goal. Monte is a classic event and one that everyone wants to win. It’s always a big challenge, especially with the conditions, but it’s a challenge I enjoy and hopefully we can start the year with a positive result.”
The 91st Monte Carlo Rally is made up of 18 Tarmac stages over 218 timed miles and finishes on Sunday afternoon.