Dirt flies as Toyota Yaris preps for WRC season

Toyota’s Gazoo motorsport division is competing on several world stages including the Dakar rally and the World Endurance Championship yet its latest target is to enter the World Rally Championship in 2017. The Toyota Yaris WRC has already completed 5000km of testing.

“We have completed a lot of test sessions since May, and we have stuck to our schedule. The addition of a second car helped us to up the pace and diversify the development testing. We want to test the vehicle in all conditions and on all surfaces so that we are ready for 2017.”

“The reason we are working with two cars is that, we wanted to split development into two parts. The first team works only in Finland, concentrating on the reliability and endurance of the car, with a test program focused on the engine and gearbox. The second test team is focused on the suspension, and is working at the other European bases, such as in Spain and Portugal,” explained Tom Fowler, WRC Chief Engineer.

The 2017 Toyota Yaris WRC cars will be campaigned by Tommi Mäkinen, Juho Hanninen and Jarkko Nikara.