Метка: Toyota Racing

Lopez’s Toyota return at Le Mans «like I had never left»

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Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical boss David Floury revealed that the Argentinian was «up to speed immediately» on his return to the cockpit of the Le Mans Hypercar at last weekend’s Le Mans Test Day for the first time since the 2023 World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.

«By the look of the lap times it was like he drove the car yesterday,» said Floury. «No big issues and clearly motivated like hell — he has worked very hard to get up to speed with all the car systems.

«We can already see that he is on top of things; we are quite confident that there will be no issues in the race.»

Lopez’s comments after ending up 10th in the second of the three-hour Test Day sessions on Sunday ahead of race week for the blue riband WEC round echoed those of Floury.

«It came back like I’d never left,» said Lopez, who switched over from the Auto Sport Promotion Lexus LMGT3 after Conway had to withdraw with the injuries sustained in a cycling accident last Thursday.

«I was thinking because I was coming from a slower car… but it’s in the brain, as soon as you jump in, it’s like ‘bang’. Lap two I was already very good.»

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Lopez revealed that he was training together with Conway at the time of the accident and that he wasn’t expecting to get the call to return to the line-up of the #7 Toyota, which he drove in the WEC with Conway and Kamui Kobayashi from 2017 until his replacement by Nyck de Vries for this season.

Toyota chose to bring him back into the Hypercar line-up rather than promoting reserve and test driver Ritomo Miyata because of his experience.

Miyata will make his first Le Mans start this year with the Cool Racing LMP2 squad.

Lopez wouldn’t be drawn on whether his return to the #7 Toyota could be extended to cover the Interlagos 6 Hours WEC round in July.

«I hope for Mike it is only a one-off; Mike is like a brother to me,» he said.

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Toyota hands Rally1 debut to rising WRC star in Latvia

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Pajari and co-driver Enni Malkonen will step up from driving Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car in WRC2 to pilot a fourth GR Yaris Rally1 at the gravel rally that will make its WRC debut from 18-21 July.

The news comes just days after the pair claimed their second career WRC2 win after finishing sixth overall at last weekend’s round in Sardinia.

Pajari has emerged as one of the WRC’s bright young talents, becoming the youngest-ever Junior WRC champion in 2021, before progressing to the second tier WRC2 class. Malkonen first navigated for Pajari in 2021 and secured the WRC3 co-drivers’ title in 2022.

“This is something that I have been working towards for many years, but it is not so often that there is a seat available in a Rally1 car,” said the 22-year-old Finn.

“It will be a huge challenge because there are so many new things to learn, and the pace at the top level is also really high. But I will try to not focus on the result too much or feel any pressure on that side, and just aim to enjoy and gain all the experience I can for the future.

“At least in Latvia the stages are mostly fast and flowing, something that I’m quite used to from Finland, and it’s also basically a fresh event for everyone, so in this sense we are more or less starting from the same place as the top drivers.

“I hope that if we can do well, then maybe there can be a chance for something nice in the future, but that’s something I can only think about much later. For now, I’ll just focus on this one rally and enjoy it.”

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has closely followed Pajari’s and Malkonen’s rise up the rally pyramid.

Latvala offered Pajari guidance at the start of his career in 2020, while Malkonen has called notes for Latvala in Finnish national rallies.

While Latvala is keen to see how the pair cope in faster Rally1 machinery, he has stressed that an overall result in Latvia is not the most important target.

“Alongside our Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Challenge Program, where since 2015 we have been training young Japanese drivers, we also keep an eye out for the most talented young drivers competing in the WRC support categories,” said Latvala.

“This year we’ve seen that Sami Pajari is driving really well with our GR Yaris Rally2 car and we would like to see his potential in our Rally1 car.

“We wish that they have a nice experience with the Rally1, and they learn about it and if they do well that is also positive.

“But the most important part is to see how they accommodate the Rally1, and it is about learning. This is not the place where they need to show something the idea is to see how is the step from Rally2 to Rally1.”

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Evans «thinking too much» about WRC title race

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Evans has cut a frustrated figure throughout this week’s Rally Sardinia, having been unable to find the confidence to extract the ultimate pace from his Toyota GR Yaris on the gravel stages.

After finishing sixth in Portugal last month, the Welshman’s struggles for speed have continued into Sardinia to leave Evans adrift of the victory fight.

A puncture on Friday cost Evans time, but he was already struggling to find a rhythm. The two-time championship runner-up also found the going tough in Saturday’s stages, but problems for others boosted him to fourth at the end of the day, albeit 2m43.3s behind team-mate and rally leader Sebastien Ogier.

Latvala believes that part of the struggles stem from the pressure of the title fight which is restricting Evans from driving naturally.

“Everyone knows he is capable of winning events; he has been so close to winning the championship [previously], I just feel maybe lately he has been taking a bit too much pressure of the championship,” said the Finn.

“I know from myself as a driver that when you start to think about it, you lose your natural ability to drive, and your mind starts to take over and you don’t drive naturally.

“He is thinking too much about the situation in the championship. We just need to find a way to relax him more and get the enjoyment for the driving back.

“I do however respect that when it doesn’t go well, he is still consistent. Personally, myself what I did was when it didn’t go well, I attacked more and then I ended up crashing.

Jari-Matti Latvala, Team principal Toyota Gazoo Racing

Jari-Matti Latvala, Team principal Toyota Gazoo Racing

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“But of course, you cannot win the championship without victories.”

Reflecting on his day, Evans said: “It’s very frustrating at the moment, we’re not feeling at one with everything.

“We always knew this could happen going into the weekend, but we still want more.

“How things were in Portugal were a tell-tale sign of things to come, but also some other stuff.”

While Sardinia has been difficult for Evans, a retirement for championship leader Thierry Neuville from third on the final stage of the morning loop offered a positive. If Evans can finish the rally tomorrow, he stands to claim 10 points for finishing fourth on Saturday while Neuville, who holds a 24-point championship lead, would fail to score.

“There is no satisfaction in what we have done, but at the same time [the points] is something,” added Evans.

Rally Sardinia concludes following four stages on Sunday.

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Evans feels “new ideas” are required after WRC Portugal struggles

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The Toyota driver felt that “everything he touched went wrong” last weekend as he witnessed his six-point deficit to championship leader Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville balloon to 24 points.

Evans’ difficulties began on Friday as he and his Toyota team-mates Sebastien Ogier, Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta struggled to find a balance with their GR Yaris Rally1 cars on the gravel stages.

This, on top of starting second on the road dropped Evans down the leaderboard before co-driver Scott Martin left his pacenote book at the stage 6 time control, which forced Evans to drive to notes being delivered from a digital copy on a mobile phone.

While the Welshman lost minimal time from the pacenotes, he conceded 52.6s to a puncture that left him in sixth at the end of Saturday. A broken radiator put his rally at risk on Sunday and subsequently ended any chances of scoring extra points, leaving him with six Saturday points, compared to Neuville’s total of 24.

With the rough gravel of Sardinia, the next destination on the WRC calendar (30 May- 2 June), Evans is hopeful his team can find a set-up solution to his Portugal struggles.

“The six points is the only positive. Of course, you want to forget the weekend, but we have to learn from it and be ready for the next one,” Evans told Motorsport.com.

“It will be difficult now with the current testing situation, but we definitely need to come up with some new ideas for Sardinia.

When asked if there was time to find a solution, he added: “Possibly, but it is obviously a risk to take something without trying it but maybe we need to look back to the past, we will see, we will discuss with the team.”

Toyota opted to conduct its pre-event Portugal test in Sardinia in order to prepare for the two gravel rallies, with test days limited under the FIA’s testing regulations.

Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala is however confident his cars will perform better in Sardinia. 

“I think on Saturday we could see we were improving with the performance of the car, so this was a good step forward,” Latvala told Motorsport.com.

“I’m not so worried about Sardinia but the biggest thing is we just need to stay on the road, because the current championship doesn’t allow you to do so many mistakes. The punishment is quite hard.”

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Surpassing Markku Alen’s WRC Portugal record “means a lot”

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Eight-time world champion Ogier added yet another record to his glittering resume by scoring a record sixth career Rally Portugal after beating Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by 7.9s. The triumph marked Ogier’s 60th WRC win and his second from three rallies during a part-time campaign for Toyota this year.

Rally Portugal, one of the founding members of the WRC in 1973, is a special place for Ogier having scored his first WRC win in 2010 for the Citroen Junior Team. Further wins followed in 2011 (Citroen), 2013-2014 (Volkswagen) and 2017 (M-Sport Ford) and until now, Ogier had been tied with 1978 world champion Alen for most wins in Portugal (1975,1977,1978,1981,1987).

Now standing on his own in the Rally Portugal record books, 40-year-old Ogier admitted his latest triumph was a special victory.

“It is [special] for sure. It looks like every weekend I get to enjoy nice new number, so I have to enjoy these moments and cherish them as you never know when it is going to end,” Ogier told Motorsport.com.

“But at the moment we are still having a good run and my age hasn’t hit us too bad yet, so we have to continue like this.

“It means a lot as he [Markku] is a legend. I have heard this comparison for years now and somehow it is nice to have this behind me, although I have enjoyed tying with him on this record.”

The passage to victory was not straightforward as Ogier initially struggled with the setup of his Toyota on Friday, before emerging from an intense fight with Tanak.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Ogier felt the secret to the success was “almost perfect race management” across the 22 stages. The only negative in Ogier’s eyes was the fact he left Portugal, scoring one point less than Tanak under the new points system that continues to split opinion.

“I think it is pretty clear that our race management was as close to perfect this weekend, and that is what brought us to where we are today,” he said.

“We pushed when we needed to and when I felt 100% in the car I pushed and managed to make some good times. Then when the situations were a bit more challenging and more tricky, I thought about it. The consistency was our biggest advantage and I still think we were the best performer.

“Three rallies, two wins and second place, it really isn’t that bad at all. The only not-so-bright side is the points as it is not reflecting at all what we have achieved. We don’t even need to discuss it anymore as it is clearly wrong.”

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala believes the way Ogier secured victory highlighted why the Frenchman has won eight world titles.

“Seb was magnificent and once again he was so mature and the way he was able to drive, and the pressure was there from Ott, I have to say he is very clever,” said Latvala.

“He knows the situation, and he goes fast but if the conditions are bad, he doesn’t push the car too much to the limit. This is why he has won the championship so many times.”

Ogier will rejoin the Toyota for the next two WRC rounds in Sardinia and Poland.

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Ogier holds rally lead, Evans hit by overheating drama

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Thick fog provided a curveball for the field, but it failed to derail Ogier as the eight-time world champion led Tanak by 10.1s after the morning’s three stages. 

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville held onto third [+1m12.1s], while M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux [+1m44.0s] leapfrogged Hyundai’s Dani Sordo [+2m44.2s] into fourth.

Toyota’s Evans completed the three stages, but an overheating issue put his rally in jeopardy, forcing Evans and co-driver Scott Martin to attempt a fix on a road section, before heading to the regroup. M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster also hit trouble when his Puma became beached in stage 21.     

Fog that intensified with every pass made driving conditions incredibly difficult for the day’s opening stage [Cabeceiras de Basto, 19.91km].

Hyundai’s Sordo was among those seeming affected by the conditions as the Spaniard lost grip of fourth overall and slipped behind Fourmaux, who was fourth fastest on the stage after battling an intermittent intercom issue.

“I tried to do a good stage but lost a lot of time at the end because we had an issue with the intercom, and I couldn’t hear Alex [Coria – co-driver]. With the weather we have, I should’ve gone mushroom picking,” said Fourmaux.

Sordo was extremely cautious through the stage losing 40.7s and initially appeared to be carrying a problem, before confirming at stage end that there was no issue with his i20 N.

“It was just very foggy and I was really bad, the car was understeering a lot. It was so difficult to drive like this,” said Sordo.  

Despite the worsening conditions, Ogier delivered his seventh stage win of the event to open up a healthy overall lead and move to the top the Super Sunday standings. The Toyota driver was 3.3s faster than Neuville, while rally rival Tanak dropped 6.2s as his victory hopes began to fade.

In the battle for the WRC2 honours, Ireland’s Josh McErlean managed to cut the gap to leader Jan Solans to 3.0s.

The thick fog rolled into the iconic Fafe [Stage 20, 11.18km], with the poor visibility testing the crews to their limits.

Tanak produced a brave drive in the challenging conditions to win the stage by 4.0s from Neuville while taking 4.5s out of rally leader Ogier to bring the gap down 13.6s.

Evans emerged from the fog 5.3s adrift to keep himself in the hunt for the Super Sunday points, sitting fourth in the final day classification.

Fourmaux extended his margin over Sordo in the fight for fourth overall to 36.0s as the latter continued to struggle with the poor visibility.

“It is difficult when you can’t see the road,” said Sordo.

Kalle Rovanpera, who rejoined the rally following his roll from the lead on Saturday, was slowest of the Rally1 runners. The Finn dropped 23.6s to stage winner Tanak after admitting that he was saving his tyres for the Power Stage given the disadvantage of starting first on the road.

Team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, who also restarted on Sunday, lost time to a hybrid issue on his GR Yaris.   

The lead of the WRC2 class changed hands as McErlean managed to beat Solans by 3.1s to move into a 0.1s rally lead, before losing that lead to Solans on stage 21 to the tune of 6.4s.

Tanak won the final stage of the morning by 1.4s from Neuville as the Estonian again took a nibble out of Ogier’s lead. The stage win was enough to haul Tanak ahead of Ogier to the top of the Super Sunday standings by 1.8s. Neuville held third in the Sunday classification ahead of Fourmaux, Katsuta, Rovanpera and Sordo. 

The rally will conclude following this afternoon’s Fafe Power Stage.



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Rovanpera explains WRC Portugal exit from the lead

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The Toyota driver started the Saturday morning loop setting a blistering pace that resulted in a stage 10 win to open up a 6.7s lead over team-mate and fellow 2024 part-time driver Sebastien Ogier.

However, Rovanpera’s rally quickly came undone on stage 11 [Montim, 8.69km] when the Finn lost the rear of his GR Yaris and hit a tree, which then pitched the car into a roll. The car eventually came to rest on its side before Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen clambered out of the vehicle unharmed.

This was the second time in three rallies this year that Rovanpera has crashed from a leading position after exiting Rally Sweden in February. Rovanpera was victorious in his other 2024 appearance in Kenya in March.

When asked to explain his stage 11 exit, Rovanpera, who will rejoin the rally on Sunday, said: “Sweden was completely my mistake and this one was bit of a confusion with the pacenotes at the previous place [in the stage] and Jonne read the notes wrong.

“But that was not the reason for the crash but on the straight after I was maybe thinking about it a bit and I missed my braking.”

He added “Defintiely the car today felt fine so it would probably have been a better day for us today [than yesterday], so it is shame.”

In the moments after the crash, WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg made a mistake and rolled his Toksport Skoda shortly after passing Rovanpera’s stricken GR Yaris.

The Swede admitted that he was distracted by Rovanpera’s incident and it triggered his crash.

“During SS11, we came across Kalle [Rovanpera] and Jonne [Halttunen] off the road and I became distracted, missing the next note. We ran off [the] line and clipped the bank on the outside of the next corner, where we rolled the car,” said Solberg.

«Elliott [Edmonson, co-driver] and I are completely fine, but due to the condition of the car we have decided that we will not continue tomorrow (Sunday).»

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta became the third high-profile retirement from the day after damaging his GR Yaris’s right-rear suspension following a relatively small impact with a rock in stage 12 [Amarante, 37.24km]

“It was in one of the high-speed sections and I went wide on right corner and there was an immediate left and we hit the bank on the outside and I was not able to turn immediately and hit a rock or wall and I got damage to the right rear suspension,” said Katsuta, who surrendered third position.

“I don’t know exactly what was there and the car is strong enough as we survived the Safari, but for sure this kind of impact was a bit too much.”  

 
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Driving to smartphone WRC pacenotes “almost as good as normal”

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Evans was forced to drive to pacenotes read from a smartphone by his co-driver Scott Martin for three stages after the latter left his pacenote book at time control at the end of stage six.

The unusual incident was triggered by a bottleneck at the end of stage 6. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe faced a delay as officials marked their timecard that required Wydaeghe to exit his vehicle to speak to officials.

The issue hadn’t been resolved by the time Evans pulled up resulting in Martin leaving the car to hand his timecard to an official. Martin opted to carry his pacenote book with him to the time control desk and accidentally left the book on the table before returning back to his Toyota.

After realising he was without his pacenotes, Martin was forced to resort to reading a digitised set of pacenotes from his tiny mobile phone screen. Luckily the veteran co-driver has always created digital notes as backup — this being the first time he has needed to deploy them.

While using a smartphone brought with it unique challenges, Evans was impressed by how well his co-driver coped.

“I was very surprised how well he was doing to be honest,” Evans told Motorsport.com. “There was obviously the odd stumble when the phone didn’t do what he wanted, but otherwise it wasn’t disturbing and almost as good as the normal thing.”

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Martin admitted the moment he realised the error brought on a moment of panic, but he was glad he had a backup plan and surprised himself by how well he coped.

“I thought to myself one day I might be in the situation where I don’t have them [pacenotes] or they are lost,” Martin told Motorsport.com. “You never stop learning and thinking of ways to have yourself covered.

“I say it quite a lot to expect the unexpected and try to have a backup plan. All those years of scanning them and having them digitally paid off.

“I didn’t know how it was going to go. My eyes were starting to get a bit weaker especially when you are looking at digital screens. I surprised myself. I was just worried about all kinds of things like making sure the phone was on airplane mode and thinking about all the things the phone has that you don’t really use. I had nothing distracting me, so no notifications popping up.”

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

When asked if the system could be the future of co-driving, Martin added: “I don’t believe it is the future, I still like pen and paper.”

The pacenote issue contributed to what was a difficult day for Evans who had been struggling for confidence in his GR Yaris before a puncture in stage seven quashed any hopes of a podium finish.

“There is not a lot of positives to take, basically everything we touched has gone wrong, but that is how it is,” said Evans who ended Friday in eighth, 1m43.2s adrift of leader Kalle Rovanpera with title rival Neuville in sixth.

“I think we worked through some things that felt better [on the car] but I still don’t think we found the ultimate package yet. I think there are answers in there somewhere.

“It is just about learning something now, I think. There is nothing to fight for as such in terms of catching somebody on pure pace unless somebody has trouble, so we just try to go out there and have a good feeling with the car.”



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Toyota not “expecting too many changes” to WRC technical rules for 2025

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The WRC is currently gripped by discussions over the technical rules for next year after teams strongly opposed the FIA’s proposal to make changes to Rally1 and Rally2 cars in a bid to boost entry numbers at events.

The FIA intends to remove hybrid power from Rally1 cars and further reduce the performance of the vehicles by modifying the rear wing and the air restrictor. The WRC manufacturers wrote a letter to the FIA last month requesting the current rules stay in place until the end of 2026.

A dossier is currently being worked on that will be submitted to the FIA which will then make a final decision on regulations, that will be communicated at the World Motor Sport Council on June 11.

According to Toyota boss Latvala, more discussions will be held at Rally Portugal this weekend, but the Finn believes technical changes are likely to be limited for next year. 

“I think there will be some meetings here and step by step things are developing and going forward,” Latvala told Motorsport.com.

“I hope by the end of this month we start to know where we are. If I have understood the focus is more on the bigger picture overall, regulations for 2027.

“All the manufacturers have come together saying we shouldn’t change so much, and I don’t expect too many changes for next year. This is the expectation, but nothing is decided.

“If we think the short term, of course, we want all the teams to commit to the championship and we don’t want it to get too expensive in the short term. Knowing the regulations for 2027 is more important now than changing things for 2025.”

Latvala is also feeling positive regarding the discussions over the 2027 regulations, which are yet to be officially ratified.

The FIA has however provided a framework that would see the Rally1 class based around the current Rally1 concept but will produce approximately 330 horsepower.  These vehicles will use a common safety cell to reduce costs and allow manufacturers and tuners to develop cars with their own bodywork based on production models from the B-class, C-Class and compact SUV segments or a Concept Car designed to tight technical criteria.

“I know that the discussions [for 2027] are ongoing and I’m positive,” Latvala added. “It is looking good, but things are going forward slowly, and I think the sooner we have more information, of course, will be better.”

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