The stakes were astronomical. Toyota headed to its home round of the World Rally Championship, Japan, knowing it needed a near-perfect rally to retain the manufacturers’ championship. That meant Takamoto Katsuta needed to deliver.
A spate of crashes earlier in the year had led to him being dropped from the lineup entirely for Rally Chile. He put 12 points on the board at the penultimate round of the season, Central European Rally, with a perfect Sunday. But the stakes in Japan were simply too high – he had to execute whatever the team told him to, to the letter, or it would be curtains for his WRC ambitions.
It may seem like hyperbole to suggest that one slip up in Japan would simply be the end of the road. But when asked by DirtFish if that was the case, Katsuta confirmed as much: “Yeah, it was, clearly I can say that,” he replied.
“For sure before the rally when I heard this, straight away I thought if I do something wrong or crash, it will be my last rally, so there was huge [pressure]. Like, this is my career of course, but this is also my life.”
How real was the threat to Katsuta’s future at Toyota? Very.
Katsuta suggested after the powerstage that his career dependended on his Japan drive - and it was true
It’s often assumed that his nationality aligning with Toyota’s, and being the first graduate of the Challenge Program system designed to find the next WRC winner from Japan, would give him a level of protection against the sack.
But team principal Jari-Matti Latvala confirmed to DirtFish that there was no guarantee Katsuta would end up with a full-time drive in 2025; a demotion to part-time status had been discussed internally.
“I must say, in one sense, [Rally Japan] was a little bit like a test as well,” said Latvala. “It’s not good to say this, but sometimes you need to see a bit of a change. I remember once a good engineer said to me that, ‘Jari-Matti, you can do a mistake, but if you do the same mistake again, that’s just stupidity’.
“I think with Taka, we know with what he’s been doing he’s really fast. But if there’s been similar mistakes happening, that is the moment we need to learn from them. And that was the point that I think he proved, that he can learn from it. That’s the most important thing.”
The pressure Katsuta had faced was immense. On the Monday after the rally, he was revealed as being part of Toyota’s lineup full-time for next season. Such were the stakes during the rally itself, Katsuta didn’t find this out until 24 hours before the big reveal.
“Now it was the moment that we also need to know that Taka needs to take a step forward on his career,” said Latvala. “Something had to be changed.
Latvala has deliberately put Katsuta under more pressure towards the end of the season to see how he'd cope
“We had a break [in Chile]. We were going through a little bit [of a] different strategy for him for Central European Rally and also then for Japan. He needs to drive consistently, he needs to take a little bit off the speed, but he needs to bring the car home. And then, now in Japan, when he had done his job really well, we said before the powerstage, now it’s a free hand. You can go for it. If it goes wrong, you still have the next season.”
The sense of relief on hearing the news was huge. After Sunday’s midday service, the trademark Taka smile had finally returned. His usual self had temporarily disappeared in a metaphorical sense. With his life’s dream under existential threat, he also had to resist the urge of simply vanishing into thin air to escape the pressure.
“I wanted to run away,” admitted Katsuta. “No, seriously, it felt like this at some point.
“I didn’t of course, but it feels like it a bit, you know. But this was kind of a big test for me and I have to make a next step forward to take a stronger mentality, so hopefully this kind of experience helps for the future. There will always be tough moments.”
His career saved for another year, Katsuta must now focus on righting the wrongs which put him in the firing line to begin with.
He will be called into action to score manufacturer points for Toyota no earlier than mid-February next year – Sébastien Ogier will take on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally in Toyota’s fifth part-time entry and score points rather than Katsuta or Sami Pajari.
No decision has been made on which rounds Katsuta or the newly promoted Pajari will be chosen to score manufacturers’ points when Ogier is absent. But Katsuta has already learned one lesson from the year just completed: he must stop trying to hard to prove his worth. That impulse is what put his WRC dream in such a precarious position to begin with.
“Everyone in the team is giving me the right, straight information of what I should do, It’s even more now clear than before,” said Katsuta. “In the past when they told me something, I was rushing myself too much: no, I need to win, I need to win, because otherwise the team doesn’t need Taka anymore, so I need to show what I can do, otherwise I have no future.
“When I had difficult situations this year, for example in Chile, I spoke a lot with team guys like Tom [Fowler, technical director] and I understood that this was not the case in the beginning of the year. I was rushing, but they were not expecting that, they were not hoping that this [leading pace] happened. They were more like even third, fourth, fifth is more than enough. But I was always thinking that I need more, more, more. Then eventually I made a mistake and created a more difficult situation myself, so that was my biggest mistake.
“But now I have more ideas, I can be calmer and make a plan more progressively. So I think I’m mentally more stable already before the rally to set a good target, so I’m pretty sure that next year will be a really good season.”
Katsuta is lowering his expectations for 2025 - not targeting a win so desperately
There were hints of potential rally-winning pace in 2024 – albeit always followed by some sort of car-breaking incident. A calmer, more measured Katsuta isn’t setting that same target for 2025 – and he has the team’s support in that respect.
“First of all I need to do a very stable job like I did last two rallies,” said Katsuta of his 2025 objectives, “then bringing some of the results. For sure it would be nice to fight on the podium in some rallies, but not rushing too much, like this year.
“At some point when I have a chance to fight something bigger, then I just go for it. But before that I need to look at the whole week strategy. I also learned from Séb quite a lot in these difficult moments and Séb gave me much advice. I really appreciate it; I was so happy how he helped me – of course not only Seb, but he was calling me.
“I really appreciate that I had very, very good support from the guys: Tom, my team-mates Séb, Elfyn, Kalle, and also other people around, basically giving me tips and advice. Without this I don’t know if I could manage or not.”
Additional reporting by Colin Clark.
