Takamoto Katsuta is aiming to fight for the World Rally Championship in 2027, with more podiums the target for 2026.
Starting his seventh season as a Toyota Gazoo Racing driver, the Japanese has seven podiums to his name but is yet to win a round of the WRC.
He has proven his pace – especially on faster loose-surface events like Sweden and Finland – but has displayed a lack of dependability at times; making mistakes or crashing in pressure scenarios.
Katsuta’s best championship finish is fifth (in 2022) while the most podiums he’s scored in a season is two (2022 and 2025).
He told DirtFish: “For me, next year [2026] is going to be kind of a one step forward year. This is my target, which is like trying to focus on more consistently fighting for the podium – like minimum top five of course, but everybody fighting for the podium is fighting for the championship points also.
“If I can do it that, then it will be quite high championship points, so a step forward, and towards the ’27, if I can, [I want] to fight for the championship. Of course it’s never easy I know, it’s going to be a very, very tough challenge for sure, but this is my target and I just try my best to get there.
“And I believe it’s not impossible, so I just need to keep improving and also show the potential as much as possible.”
Katsuta learned a valuable lesson at his home event, Rally Japan, last year, where he hit a plastic barrier on Saturday while fighting team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans for the lead.
He was desperate to win the rally, but in hindsight believes he should have accepted the podium – a key attribute when fighting for a championship.
“I was too much focusing to try to get a win,” Katsuta reflected. “If I accept it, OK, now I go for podium, for sure 100% I stay there [on the podium].
“I’m not saying that I made a mistake or decision or anything because I wanted to win, but this kind of moment maybe a bit like what Séb and Elfyn can do is they are always fighting on top, top yes, but they can push but not too crazy every single stage – more like finding ‘OK this stage I was going with everybody, the next one maybe I push’ and it becomes more like controlling.
In the same situation as Japan 2025 again, Katsuta wants to be more composed
“But what I did this time was ‘Now I need to push every stage or something like this’ and then small, small mistakes cost a lot. So I just need to keep pushing of course but finding the right timing to not do this kind of small mistake again.
“This is one of the most important thing I need to do, in my opinion.”
The speed, as highlighted, is not a concern.
“For sure, the pace when I’m pushing, it’s most of the rallies quite OK,” Katsuta added. “The thing is that a very small thing can affect all the rallies. It can make a small mistake, it can make a big mistake, and it can be easily done.
“Finding the balance and finding the solution in each moment, I just need to really find it and once I find it, for sure after that it’s so much easier I believe it. But this one step is not easy, just I try to find it.
“I have everything: good car, good team and good team-mates. I just need to work harder, then we’ll be there. This is my belief.”
