Takamoto Katsuta is in unchartered territory. Six rounds out from the conclusion of this year’s World Rally Championship and he’s 11 points behind series leader Elfyn Evans.
He’s finished in the top three on half of the eight rounds so far – and 50% of his podium time has been spent on the top step. He’s demonstrated the kind of consistency and maturity he’s threatened for a while.
The obvious question would be to ask his thoughts on his championship chances, but maybe the more pertinent and thought-provoking enquiry sits around what’s actually changed within him?
The Japanese thinks about his answer, gives it a couple goes, backtracks, then emphasizes some further thoughts. He wants to get this right.
“I’m not chasing so much now,” he told DirtFish. “How do I say this? OK, for example, if I am fighting for a podium or if I start to see there is the opportunity to fight for a podium or a victory, before I would try to catch it straight away.
Katsuta is now motivated by delivering results rather than just speed
“I would start to push, then eventually over-pushing and there would be some small details, maybe some small mistakes and I would lose the opportunity and, basically, I would be out of the fight already in the middle of the rally.
“Now, of course, I still try to catch this opportunity, but I’m not rushing anything – I’m trying to make sure that I see everything and manage everything, to focus on my own things without pushing too much.”
There’s a pause as he considers his response, it’s still not quite right.
“Of course, you know, you need to push. But I’m not going crazy like I did sometimes before,” Katsuta added.
“I don’t know if it’s the right word, but [I’m] maybe [a] more calculating driver now. There is still time to take risks, but not all the time. Now I start to see more when is the time to take the risk and I start to see kind of a different situation probably.
“Another thing is the confidence to make the right decision or at least to have the confidence in my decision. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. And if it works, it works.
Katsuta has four podiums already in 2026 - more than any other season
“Before I was always wanting to prove my speed, I wanted to show what kind of speed I can deliver. But now I want to prove what kind of result I can deliver. I always wanted to be fastest, or top three all of the time. But now, yes it’s necessary to be taking these positions and these results, but it’s not necessary to be proving all the time that I can. Now, it’s more important to prove the result and I switched a little bit to this side.”
Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler has enjoyed seeing the change.
“When he crossed the finish line in Greece, I sent him a message,” Fowler told DirtFish. “I told him, for me, that was one of his most impressive rallies ever. I think you got your rankings wrong – for me, Taka was the best driver at Acropolis. I was a bit disappointed, I would have put him number one. This is Takamoto Katsuta we’re talking about… he will push on his way to Tesco. He’s full throttle, it’s what he’s known for and it’s what the fans love him for.
“And then we come to Acropolis and he’s this guy dancing around the rocks, having zero punctures when everybody else has one and he’s finishing on the podium after running second on the road through Friday.”
Katsuta free to send it in Estonia and Finland
Katsuta will go into this summer’s festival of World Rally Championship speed with the full backing of his Toyota team to push for victory in Estonia and Finland.
Katsuta’s pace on fast gravel is well-documented – he’s been on the podium in Jyväskylä twice in the last three years and arrives in Tallinn looking to add a third win to his season tally.
“This is where Taka’s strategy is helping him a little bit,” said Fowler. “This is something he and I have talked about for a while now – if you crash too many times you can lose the support from the team when you want to go to an event and really push.
“When you keep pushing to the correct moments, you get support. Taka now needs to score good points in Estonia and Finland and you can only do that by taking a good level of push. So now is the moment when he needs to go there and drive pretty fast in order to take points away and he does that with the team’s blessings because he’s been sensible for the last few events.
“If you need to make a sacrifice every now and again and say, ‘I’m not going to have good stage times, I’m not going to win this rally, I’m just going to do my safe drive…’ That’s sensible and helps with the desire to push later on. This is what we’ve seen from Taka.
“And if you crash when you’re pushing, you’ve crashed when you’re pushing, don’t worry about it, go and try again.”
