Toyota’s fourth driver Takamoto Katsuta has pledged to lean on his team-mates to try to accelerate his World Rally Championship learning curve.
Katsuta has a part-time WRC season this year in a fourth Yaris under the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Challenge Program banner, following two appearances in the top class last season.
He has finished seventh and ninth in this year’s two rounds so far, but has been adrift of the experienced drivers’ pace on both occasions.
With team-mates Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä contenders battling for wins and podiums, Katsuta said he wants to make sure he’s learning as much as possible from them.
“I have big motivation to improve for the future,” he told DirtFish’s Colin Clark.
“The positive thing is I am in a very good team with very strong drivers and I can share the information and I can see the data compared to them, and I can find lots of improvements myself.”
He admitted there were times on last weekend’s Rally Sweden when he was “not happy about my driving” and that he had “many, many tasks” to get fully up to speed in the WRC.
Katsuta gave the example of his inexperience making him cautious on unfamiliar stages in changing conditions, but the frontrunners being able to push on anyway.
“Tricky conditions and only one pass so you cannot just go for example,” he said.
“But the top boys need to go flat out anyway.
“It was nice to see how they are going, like taking risks and trusting yourself.
“That is what I need in the future.”
