You don’t win 15 of the last 18 World Rally Championship rallies if you’re prepared to settle for second.
Toyota Gazoo Racing is a ruthless, relentless winning machine that strives for more, even when it finishes first.
Or, say, lock out the first two podiums of the season.
“Of course, in terms of points, it’s actually worse than last year,” smiled Toyota technical director Tom Fowler. “I think we dropped three points compared to last year in the manufacturers’ championship. This time last year we had 120, and now we have 117.”
What a travesty! But the situation can be easily explained.
“What’s essentially happened here is that we filled the podium in both rallies and did a 1-2-3-4, but only two cars from your championship point of view are counting towards the manufacturers’ [championship],” Fowler told DirtFish.
“You have to nominate three cars, and we run five. We always put five cars’ worth of effort in, but we only get two cars’ worth of points back out at the end.
Toyota has filled out all six podium places in 2026, but is three points worse off than in 2025
“So these three points that we’ve lost compared to last season, obviously it would be nice to have those, but in the big picture, the car is obviously performing very well this year in comparison to our opposition that all of our drivers have been able to score podiums.”
Elfyn Evans has two podiums, while the other four drivers – Oliver Solberg, Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari – have one.
Again, it’s been an unbelievable start for the team unbeaten since 2021, but that also creates extra pressure ahead of next week’s Safari Rally Kenya.
No manufacturer has won the Safari as many times as Toyota. Its 12 wins tower over next-best Mitsubishi, which has recorded five. But more than that, Toyota has not been beaten on African soil since the rally returned to the WRC calendar five years ago.
Victory in 2026 would mean a sixth in succession, and earn the team a lockout of Safari wins from this era of Rally1 car (a record it can also claim in Portugal later this spring).
Not a lot gets Fowler nervous, but this does.
“Yeah, I mean, massively nervous about that topic because, essentially, the statistics are against us,” he said.
Toyota is the only to have won the modern-day Safari
“Last year was already a little bit of a struggle and the thing you have to bear in mind with the Safari is you can prepare and prepare and prepare but you still need an element of luck, an element of judgment on behalf of the drivers and the team working behind the car. There’s a lot of things that have to align to win it for one, but then to also fill the podium and get all your cars through all the stages without any major issues… it’s statistically and technically very difficult to do both at the same time.
“If we are able to win this one then it’s all of the Rally1 editions which is something that we’d really like to do. But on the other hand, I think more importantly, coming out of Safari last year, we definitely let Hyundai open the door to the championship a little bit compared to what we had done in Monte Carlo in Sweden, which on an event which is so complicated is understandable.”
“But we really don’t want to open that door anymore.”
Toyota still won the Safari in 2025 through Evans, but Hyundai had more cars on the podium with Ott Tänak second and Thierry Neuville third.
Victory continues to elude the i20 squad – a victory that means just that little bit more to all manufacturers.
“Certainly it has an element of achievement that other rallies don’t bring you in terms of the feeling afterwards,” agreed Fowler. “I would say it’s a bit like climbing a mountain – the actual climbing is not particularly enjoyable but when you get to the top it looks really good, and I think Safari is a bit like this.
“You go through a lot of pain to be there. You go through a lot of drama during the event, lots of highs and lows, and it’s a very difficult rally to manage. So by the time you get to the end, the whole team is very tired, very stressed. And if you win, then you get something for all of that work and all of that stress that you put in.
“And if you don’t win, then you go home feeling very upset. And actually, I think it’s something that we learn, as time goes by, which is that when you win, it feeds you back, the work you put in, for a few minutes.
“But when you lose, you stay depressed for several weeks. So on this rally particularly, where it’s so hard, the winning is really an important part.”
However, there is more at stake than just the satisfaction of Safari success. In a change from 2025, the front of the 2026 schedule is Tarmac-loaded, with three of the next four events after Kenya staged on asphalt.
Road position after Kenya is critical for upcoming Tarmac rallies (like Canarias), says Fowler
That makes any championship gains made now extra important, with the sweeping effect at its worst as the year reaches its crescendo.
“Road position is going to be crucial going into, in this calendar, Tarmac rallies, where road position on dirty Tarmac will be critical,” Fowler explained.
“And so we want as many of our drivers as possible to be scoring points in Kenya to get as good a road position as possible for the future.
“So a lot lies in success in Kenya – more than just winning for the fifth time with a Rally1 and sixth time in total. It’s a big deal.”
