If he’s honest, it wasn’t the job he wanted. Team principal’s nice, but World Rally Championship driver is better.
Having signed off on the driving side of things after his first winless WRC campaign in more than a decade, Jari-Matti Latvala signed on to run the cars he’d just stopped driving. That was the top of the 2021 season and what followed was Latvala-led domination of the world championship.
Now? The temptation of full-time driving has come knocking again. And it’s an itch Latvala is finding irresistible to scratch.
The 39-year-old will blend the role of team principal with a full-time FIA European Historic Rally Championship campaign in 2025.
“For sure, I will be in Monte Carlo and Sweden [as team principal],” Latvala told DirtFish. “After that we are looking at [the calendar].”
Latvala will remain in position for both Monte Carlo and Sweden, but not the whole season
Latvala has stepped back as team principal for the last two Rally Finlands as he has instead been competing, with Toyota Motor Corporation chairman Akio Toyoda filling that role in 2023 while sporting director Kaj Lindström managed a dual-role in Jyväskylä this summer.
Latvala’s will tackle next year’s European series at the wheel of a Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, a car permitted to run in FIA-sanctioned events following a decision from last month’s World Motor Sport Council.
Talking about that decision, Latvala said: “It’s good news. I mean getting cars now in the historic rally up to year 2000, we have some great cars in the ’90s, the Group A cars and the first World Rally Cars. They’ve been kept now a little bit on the side and I think there is a lot of fans who really wants to see these cars on the action.
“I’m one of those and I’m really happy that I’ve been building now a Celica ST185 so then I can compete in the European Championship with that car.”
