Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has offered insight into the 2025 testing the team completed in Croatia ahead of the World Rally Championship round earlier this month.
A GR Yaris Rally1 ran in the proposed 2025 trim with reduced aerodynamics, no hybrid and a smaller air intake. Conversely a GR Yaris Rally2 was boosted by a bigger restrictor giving more power and bigger wings to deliver improved downforce – as per the WRC Working Group’s pitch for next season.
Asked what the team had learned from its testing, Latvala told DirtFish: “What I can tell you is that, for us, it’s a big step down from the Rally1 with the modifications, what you had to do. And for the Rally2 car, small step up.”
Toyota tested a modified version of its Yaris Rally1 using a smaller, 2025-style rear wing before Croatia Rally
Latvala remains concerned by the potential changes and admitted he struggled to see the two cars competing for outright victory next season.
“I think it’s difficult to bring these two cars to the same class,” he added. “If you think about the Rally1 car, how it’s developed, all the aerodynamics is designed to be for the rear spoiler [and] how the sides of the car is tied in the air[flow] to the rear spoiler. When you remove the rear spoiler and put the smaller one in, it’s not that simple. The rear geometry of the car doesn’t necessarily work at all the way it’s designed to be.
“And that’s why all this would need work and testing. And it’s so much easier for everybody if we would just go in a way that we don’t change too much.
Latvala believes it will be very difficult to equalize the performance of modified Rally1 and Rally2 cars, even with the FIA's proposed changes
Latvala questioned the thinking in making Toyota’s premium factory car slow enough to be beaten by its customer-based machine from a class below.
He said: “If you slow down Rally1 a lot, then of course everything is possible [and a Rally2 could win]. But then also you have to think about this way: what is then the interest for the manufacturers to run the Rally1 cars? If the ‘Rally2-plus’ car is suddenly faster, [and] you can make it with the kit at home. So… why do you want to be a manufacturer in the World Rally Championship?”
DirtFish understands Toyota has been working on the proposed 2025 technical regulations since the February meeting of the World Motor Sport Council where the WRC Working Group’s technical plans were first detailed. The final word on 2025 rules will be confirmed at the WMSC meeting in June.
