Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT is a

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

(WRC) team based in Finland that serves as

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

's official factory team. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala. The team made its début during the 2017 season, where it entered the

Toyota Yaris WRC The Toyota Yaris WRC is a World Rally Car designed by Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT to compete in the World Rally Championship. The car is based on the Toyota Vitz#XP130, Vitz-based XP130 Toyota Yaris, and is the first car Toyota have competed with in ...

. The team is a separate entity from the Toyota Gazoo Racing team led by Toyota Motorsport GmbH that competes in the

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Enduran ...

. In 2018, the team managed to win the

. This earned Toyota their first manufacturers' title since

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

History

Toyota's return to the World Rally Championship and the development of the Yaris WRC was originally overseen by Toyota Motorsport GmbH, the successor to Toyota Team Europe, the team that ran Toyota Celicas and the Toyota Corolla WRC in the 1980s and 1990s. With Toyota Motorsport GmbH also overseeing the development and operation of the

Toyota TS050 Hybrid The Toyota TS050 Hybrid is a sports prototype racing car developed for the 2016 Le Mans Prototype rules in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The car is the direct successor of the Toyota TS040 Hybrid, which competed in both the 2014 and 201 ...

in the World Endurance Championship, Toyota elected to reassign the project to Tommi Mäkinen. Mäkinen shelved the Yaris WRC prototype developed by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and started anew.

2017

made their return to the WRC after eighteen years of absence in 2017 season with

. Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver

Miikka Anttila Miikka Anttila (born 10 September 1972) is a Finnish rally co-driver, currently teaming with Jari-Matti Latvala at Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Anttila has previously served alongside such drivers as Mikko Hirvonen, Janne Tuohino and Kosti Kataja ...

left

Volkswagen Motorsport The Volkswagen Motorsport was a works rally team of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, who competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and Dakar Rally. The team started competing in WRC in 1978 and used different specs of Volkswagen Gol ...

following the team's withdrawal from the sport to join Toyota Gazoo Racing, where they were partnered with

Juho Hänninen Juho Ville Matias Hänninen (born 25 July 1981) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) champion and 2011 Super 2000 World Rally Championship (S-WRC) champion with co-driver Mikko Markkula driving a works ...

—who returned to the championship for the first time since 2014—and

Kaj Lindström Kaj Lindström (born 31 July 1969) is a Finnish sporting director, who worked for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Prior to this position, he was a rally co-driver A co-driver is the navigator of a rally car in the sport of rallying, who sits in the ...

. Reigning WRC-2 champions

Esapekka Lappi Esapekka Lappi (born 17 January 1991) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 Finnish Rally Champion, 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion. Career 2012 Lappi won the 2012 Finnish Rally Championship with Ford Fiesta S200 ...

and

Janne Ferm Janne Ferm (born 29 August 1980) is a Finnish rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Esapekka Lappi and is competing for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT in the World Rally Championship. Rally career Janne Ferm began his rally career in 2007, ...

made their début in a WRC specification car, contesting a partial campaign from the

Rally of Portugal The Rally de Portugal (formerly: Rallye de Portugal) is a rally competition held in Portugal. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Champi ...

. Toyota last competed in the sport as a factory-supported team between

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and

with the Corolla WRC before withdrawing ahead of the 2000 season to focus on its Formula One project. ToyotaYarisWRC17 BAmotorshow17

The team took their first podium at the

2017 Monte Carlo Rally The 2017 Monte Carlo Rally (formally known as the 85ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 19 and 22 January 2017. It marks the eighty-fifth running of the Monte Carlo Rally ...

, and took their first win at the next round in the

2017 Rally Sweden The 2017 Rally Sweden (formally known as the Rally Sweden 2017) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over three days between 10 and 12 February 2017. It marked the sixty-fifth running of the Rally Sweden, and was the second round ...

. The teams best run of the season came in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

, with

taking his first WRC win and

taking his first podium finish, Jari-Matti Latvala had to retire from the lead with a mechanical problem.

2018

Before the 2018 season,

Ott Tänak Ott Tänak (; born 15 October 1987) is an Estonian rally driver and the 2019 World Rally Champion. He is currently teamed with Martin Järveoja and is competing for Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT. Tänak achieved his maiden drivers' world title in ...

and Martin Järveoja left

M-Sport M-Sport is an auto racing team and motorsport engineering company headquartered at Dovenby Hall near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1979 by the World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson, and originally known as ...

to join the team, replacing

and

. Hänninen and Lindström remained with the team, with Hänninen taking on a test driver role and Lindström replacing

Jarmo Lehtinen Jarmo Lehtinen (born 3 January 1969) is a rally co-driver from Finland. He was the co-driver to former World Rally Championship driver Mikko Hirvonen and have scored 15 WRC wins competing under Ford World Rally Team and Citroën Total. As of ...

as the team's sporting director. In August, the team located its service base to

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

, 8 km from the capital of

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

. Headquarters, development, testing and administration will stay in

. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT was able to capture the

2018 World Rally Championship The 2018 FIA World Rally Championship was the 46th season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams an ...

manufacturers title. With Tommi Mäkinen heading the team, he became the first person in the history of rally driving to win a Championship both as a driver and as a team principal. Ott Tänak took four rally wins, including three consecutive and Jari-Matti Latvala won once.Season 2018
ewrc-results.com

2019

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

left to join

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...

after two years with the team.

Kris Meeke Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a Northern Irish professional rally driver, best known for competing in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His co-driver is Seb Marshall, also ...

and

Sebastian Marshall Sebastian Marshall (born 29 May 1988) is a British rally co-driver. Rally career Sebastian Marshall began his rally career in 2005, co-driving for several drivers. In the 2008 Rallye Deutschland, he made his WRC debut, where he partnered Ric ...

would instead drive a third car in the championship.

2020

In the 2020 season, Toyota had a brand new line up with six-time WRC champion

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC), who is teamed with the co-driver Julien Ingrassia. He has won the World Rally Drivers' Champion ...

joining from

who had pulled out of the 2020 season with

Elfyn Evans Elfyn Rhys Evans (born 28 December 1988) is a Welsh rally driver. He is currently teamed with Scott Martin and is competing for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the World Rally Championship. Career The son of 1996 British Rally Championship Champion ...

from

and

Kalle Rovanperä Kalle Rovanperä (; born 1 October 2000 in Jyväskylä) is a Finnish professional rally driver, who competes in the World Rally Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, alongside co-driver Jonne Halttunen. He is the reigning World Champion. ...

from

Škoda Motorsport Škoda Motorsport is the division of Czech car manufacturer Škoda Auto responsible for motorsport activities. The team had competed as a manufacturer in the World Rally Championship between 1999 and 2005 and Intercontinental Rally Challenge (be ...

all joining Toyota for this season, as 2019 champion

left to join

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate (" chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai A ...

, and

left the team as well.

WRC results

Notes

References

External links

*
Team profile at wrc.com
{{Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota World Rally Championship teams Toyota in motorsport