Just four days after securing their World Rally Championship crowns, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin are back in a rally car and testing for the 2027 defense of their titles.
Despite celebrating more championship success in Sardinia at the weekend, Toyota is immediately back out with its 2027 test car. Having run Kalle Rovanperä on asphalt in Spain last week, the team has switched to gravel in Portugal this week.
Evans is the third driver in the car, with Sami Pajari running on Tuesday and Takamoto Katsuta on Wednesday. Oliver Solberg will drive the as-yet-unnamed 2027 Rally1 car at the weekend, while Sébastien Ogier is not scheduled to complete any mileage this week.
Toyota technical director Tom Fowler flew home from Sardinia on Sunday night and was back in the factory in Finland on Monday morning.
“There’s still a lot to get through before next year,” Fowler told DirtFish. “It makes it slightly simpler not having another event to go to [following the cancellation of the final WRC round in Saudi Arabia], but we still have testing to do and, as you can imagine, every test generates more data and more discussion.
“It’s nice for Elfyn and Scott to be back out in the car again, we even put a number one on the side for him…”
Toyota’s all-new car is understood to be very close to its homologation specification with further and final details of the car and team expected early next month.
