Toyota driver Elfyn Evans feels we’re yet to see the strengths of each World Rally Championship team so far this season, despite his team’s strong start.
M-Sport Ford won the Monte Carlo Rally with Sébastien Loeb and Hyundai topped Rally Italy thanks to Ott Tänak’s efforts, but Toyota is the only team to win multiple events in the WRC’s new hybrid era.
All four victories (Sweden, Croatia, Portugal and Safari Rally Kenya) have been courtesy of Kalle Rovanperä who has established a commanding lead at the head of the championship.
Toyota also leads the manufacturers’ race by a healthy 62 points over Hyundai and, following an historic 1-2-3-4 finish in Africa, has therefore emerged as the team to beat in the first half of the season.
But Evans doesn’t believe his team is at any sort of advantage heading into the first high-speed gravel rallies of the year – Estonia next week and then Rally Finland.
Although the GR Yaris Rally1 grew up on fast Finnish roads, Hyundai has nominated Jämsä as a permanent test site too.
“It’s early days in the season,” Evans told DirtFish.
“It’s the first fast rally we’re doing now with Estonia and Finland back to back. It’s really hard to gauge again, it’s obviously a new season, new cars, we’re yet to see everybody’s strengths I feel.
“You know, the other teams have shown great speed throughout the year. So you can take nothing for granted. And we still have a big job on our hands to continue the way we have.”
Asked directly if Toyota’s opposition should be worried about its performances given the podium lockout on the Safari, Evans said: “I think the team did a really good job to react to some difficulties we had in Portugal and Sardinia.
“The speed with which they reacted to really be in a good place for Safari, it was really impressive.
“Actually, on my side, I think everybody’s working well together. So yeah, [it was a] really great achievement for the car to come to that extreme terrain and have four cars finish with really very little issues was really impressive.
“So I’m proud of everybody at the factory and the job they did.”
While Toyota has undoubtedly begun the new Rally1 era well, things haven’t quite gone to plan for Evans – who was tipped to be a title favorite following Sébastien Ogier’s retirement from full-time competition.
Evans has claimed two podiums (second in Portugal and Safari) this season, but hasn’t graced the top step in the WRC since Rally Finland last October after a 2022 that’s been punctuated by small driving errors and occasional misfortune.
Estonia hasn’t been kind to Evans over the years either as he injured his back when it was a promotional event in 2019, crashed heavily in a warm-up event in 2020 and has never finished higher than fourth on Rally Estonia itself.
“With Estonia we’ll have a great starting position again, we’re just on the fringes of the top six. And of course, our target is always to move up,” Evans said.
“So yeah, of course, we’re looking for the strongest result possible. It’s not been an event that’s been particularly kind to us in the past.
“The test was quite OK so hopefully we can turn that into some good speed.”
The line hasn’t changed regarding his team-mate Rovanperä either. Evans trails by a whopping 88 points, but all he can do is concentrate on maximizing his own result.
“He’s obviously had a great first half of the year, really impressive,” Evans said on Rovanperä.
“It’s not gone our way at all really, too many small errors and things not going our way.
“But we have to get our head down, just focus on the results that are in front of us, the events that are in front of us and focus on getting the best result possible.”
