The rise of an engine note always sharpens the senses. The wheel nut gun’s given one more quick blast while eyes are cast across spares and tools to be sure they’re in the right place at the right moment.
Service for a World Rally Championship team is intense and this one is no exception. The car’s coming in with damage and it seems there’s going to be a transmission change. It’s going to be a hectic one.
“Car’s in,” somebody calls. And with that the roller door around the back of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Jyskä’s headquarters opens up to the sight of a 2027-specification camo-liveried Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
It’s all a bit surreal, but there’s a point to the peculiarity. This is the penultimate day of a six-day rally simulation for the defending champions. The thinking is straightforward: to give every one of the six crews confirmed as part of the team’s 2027 WRC program a day to get used to living with their new car.
Today’s Taka’s turn. Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston emerge from the dirtied car which has indeed taken a knock on the front-right corner.
“Deer,” grimaced Katsuta. “I tried to avoid it. There were many of them crossing the road. I don’t like this.”
The damaged bodywork isn’t the focus for now.
Instead, Toyota overalls disappear beneath the car to start the process of whipping out the gearbox. Every corner gets the routine maintenance required for the afternoon’s four stages totalling close to 80 kilometers.
As many aspects of this process are replicated from an actual event. The crews completed their recce of their stages the day before, stayed in the hotel and worked on their notes in the evening before starting out at a typically ungodly hour to head up the road to the first stage.
Between stages, they were encouraged to do as much work as they would if they were fighting for the lead on Rally Finland proper. There were suspension click fiddles galore, along with other minor set-up changes.
This was a big get-to-know-you exercise for the crews and their new cars. It’s about where the crash helmets go between stages, it’s about how easy it is to get the spare wheel out if there’s a puncture or tire rotation. Scott Martin already has a tip or two for his team-mates… careful where you put your legs when you’re pulling the spare out of the back of the car. The exhaust on the 2027 Rally1 car runs straight through the middle, rather than down the right-hand side.
“That’s quite nice,” said the world champion co-driver. “It means we’re not going to be quite as hot on the co-driver’s side – but you do need to be mindful of the exhaust when you’re in the boot.”
The exhaust had drawn a perfect circle on the leg of Scott’s overalls.
Toyota’s service controller Sam Irwin announces there’s 20 minutes of service time remaining. The information is absorbed almost subliminally. The technicians are skilled in service like this – they know what’s coming and what time it takes to get jobs done.
But this time they’re doing it against the clock. With the usual pressures a WRC round brings. Or most of them.
As time dips below 10 minutes, the new transmission is sorted and Irwin starts to direct operations a little bit more. With steering componentry being tightened, there’s a word to remind the team it’s straight on to the pre-prepared cooling package next. Almost unnoticed, the front-right’s as good as new again, the windows are being cleaned and fresh rubber’s being pulled from the rack to be fitted.
Toyota’s chief engineer Kévin Struyf – one of the key players in the design and delivery of the car – circles the Yaris slowly. Arms folded, he’s taking everything in. Watching the work with a keener eye than usual. He wants to know how easy it was to remove and replace parts. It’s not too late to make changes to the design, to make those all-important on-event running repairs easier further down the line.
Typically, with any new Toyota rally car, there’s been a vast amount of input, research and development with these new cars. Could the team have managed without the simulation? Probably, but that wouldn’t be the Toyota way. Everything is done in the best way possible and, undoubtedly, six days of ‘rally’ driving have delivered no end of data on all manner of topics which might not have been uncovered until day one of the 2027 season.
It’s been a success. And it’s definitely been surreal. Following the Yaris thread its way through the gathering gloom of a November afternoon on its way to the next stage in central Finland was not a normal Monday.
But it was a very productive one.
