Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has all-but conceded both World Rally Championship titles are lost for this season, following a nightmare Acropolis Rally Greece.
The Japanese manufacturer failed to register a factory car in the top 10, with Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta finishing 16th, 18th and 30th overall. Ogier’s hopes of a big haul of Sunday points went south when he rolled his GR Yaris Rally1 a mile into the powerstage.
Hyundai celebrated a podium lock-out with series leader Thierry Neuville winning the Lamia-based event. Neuville now leads team-mate Ott Tänak by 34 points, with Ogier in third place, four down on the Estonian.
Latvala said the team’s focus would now pivot away from a championship challenge to winning all three remaining events.
He told DirtFish: “I think what our target now is we need to change the plan. Our target is now to try to win the last remaining events and then try to create the feeling for 2025.
Hyundai weren't dominant in Greece – but the 1-2-3 finish was emblematic of the direction both world championships have taken in the last two rounds
“The championships gap for the drivers were already, let’s say, 28 from the drivers’ side and 20 for the manufacturers. This will increase and when you have three rallies to go with the current system it’s so difficult to catch back. As we’ve seen, I’m sure Hyundai will play a safety guard on those that they don’t want to take such risks which would basically put in danger their position in the both championships.”
Talking specifically about Ogier’s final-stage crash, Latvala added: “With Séb, I have to say that first of all, I defend what he did – he had to go out in there and try to be flat out, because we had no other chance, because we want to catch in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship points.
“When you go flat out then things can go wrong and unfortunately it means that our chances for the world championships are pretty much gone.”
Moving to Chile for round 11 later this month, Latvala wants the team to head to South America with a more relaxed mindset.
He added: “For me, the mindset needs to be winning and if it brings something for the championship then it would be a massive bonus, but it shouldn’t be anymore too much in your mind. You can drive more without the pressure when you don’t need to think about the championship. For me the drivers can be a bit more relaxed with the driving and then you actually you can do better results.
“Of course, everything is possible, but what I mean is like, it’s no point to try to build wrong, let’s say, wrong hopes. For me, let’s change the target to winning the events, and if you win the events, and something goes wrong [for Hyundai] and the championship comes, then it would be a massive, massive bonus.”
Ogier was able to rescue the 13 points scored on Saturday after his rollover – but Toyota was still outscored by 15 points in Greece
A hugely frustrated Ogier explained his final-stage drama, telling DirtFish: “We picked up a puncture pretty much straight away. And yeah, next corner, I couldn’t brake and just went off the road. Still, I take responsibility for that. I mean, I see on my dash straight away the puncture…
“But, in this moment, I believe there is a bit of frustration of all the effort I’ve put into this race and see that it all goes away in a matter of seconds and I have to stop to change the wheel. But yeah, again, my mistake to not stop straightaway and change this puncture.
“At least we managed to fix the car and bring it back here in service and bring some points to the team.
“It’s been a strange weekend. In many ways close to perfection, but it’s not enough. It doesn’t count in rally if you don’t bring it all to the end. And at the end, yeah, this last stage ruined all the effort – and the misfortune of the turbo on Friday, of course, put us in this situation of having to take all the risks. Greece is obviously never the rally you want to take all the risks because you need luck to go through. There was not so much on our side this weekend.”
Talking about his own title chances, Ogier confirmed he will contest the last three rounds and keep on fighting.
“Mathematically,” he said, “we’re still in, but realistically the chances are pretty small. Again, I’m totally relaxed regarding this target, which wasn’t really a target – it just came up now in the last part of the season.
“I was mentioning before the start [of the rally], let’s see what happens here in Greece. The luck factor will play a big role. It didn’t help us so much, the luck factor, this weekend. With three rallies to go, it’s unlikely, but it’s still rallies and still many things can happen. That’s why we’ll be there and we will keep fighting.”
