It’s world rallying’s most asked question right now. And here at DirtFish, we believe we’ve got the closest thing yet to an answer.
How much quicker will next year’s WRC27-specification Toyota be compared with a current Rally2 car? The answer is, not very. Sometimes, not at all.
When Toyota’s all-new GR Yaris Rally1 replacement broke cover at a gravel test last month, it sparked the route one debate about what it actually was. Once that question was broadly covered and more videos of the car’s gravel running landed, the focus shifted to how fast it would go.
DirtFish understands Toyota has back-to-back tested the 2027 car with its GR Yaris Rally2 – the specification of car it will be up against in the WRC’s premier class next season.
While there has been no official confirmation of such a test from the defending world champion team, one source close to the test stated: “We’ve seen both cars running on the same roads. From what we’ve seen, there’s very, very little to chose between them. It looks like the FIA made this regulation quite well, but it’s also what you’d expect when you think about what next year’s car is… it’s a Rally2 car in a different [tubular] chassis.”
Talking in a recent interview about the potential for 2027 competition between the two specification of cars, Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler told DirtFish: “In 2027 you can come with a new car with the new regulations or you can come with a Rally2 car which is already homologated and the power to weight ratio and specification of these cars is very similar and essentially, going into the rally, anybody can win.”
Fowler said this parity of competition would help offset a potential perceived lack of spectacle from not running Rally1 cars in next year’s World Rally Championship.
He added: “Once we see that the number of cars which will hopefully arrive, and also the number of different drivers who will come back to the championship or more consistently be in the championship, I’m pretty sure the level of competition and the fight between the different drivers coming from different places will outweigh any loss of spectacle [from not using the current Rally1 cars].”
Read David Evans’ further analysis into this subject on Club DirtFish
