Takamoto Katsuta says he is under “no stupid pressure” ahead of his first World Rally Championship event as a nominated driver to score points for Toyota’s main team this weekend in Sweden.
Katsuta has risen through Toyota’s Rally Challenge program, stepping into a Yaris WRC for the first time on Rally Germany 2019, contesting five rallies out of seven in 2020 then being entered for full seasons in the WRC’s top class since then.
Last year Katsuta’s responsibilities stepped up as he scored manufacturer points for his own standalone Toyota Next Generation team.
Following Esapekka Lappi’s departure to Hyundai, on the rallies Sébastien Ogier isn’t present (like Sweden) Katsuta will be nominated by Toyota Gazoo Racing as one of its three manufacturer entrants.
Naturally that places Katsuta under a degree of pressure this weekend, but he told DirtFish that Toyota isn’t actively applying any.
“If I say no it’s not true!” he said when asked if he was feeling any pressure about driving for the manufacturer in Sweden.
“But I feel good pressure just to do my job, focus on what I should do – like it depends on the situation of course but all the team and engineers, they’ve never given me stupid pressure so they’re always saying: ‘Taka, if you do just your job it should be OK, no pressure’.”
Sweden has been a good event for Katsuta in the past. He finished fourth last year in a GR Yaris Rally1 and claimed a breakthrough WRC2 win in 2018 driving a Ford Fiesta R5 run by Tommi Mäkinen Racing (the team of Toyota’s former team principal).
His preparation for this year’s event has been extensive, albeit with less mileage than planned.
As well as a one-day test the week after the Monte Carlo Rally, Katsuta contested the Kuopio Rally in Finland. He was running second at midday service, 12.9 seconds behind then-leader Esapekka Lappi, before being forced to retire after damaging his radiator in a snowbank on the next stage.
Asked what’s possible this weekend, Katsuta said: “Last year I remember at the beginning I was struggling [but] at the end of the weekend I was pretty strong at some point so I’m pretty confident.
