Kalle Rovanperä was spotted testing Toyota’s 2027 WRC test mule in Spain the same week as Elfyn Evans, Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari charged into a three-way title decider in Sardinia, raising questions over his future.
This naturally raised question marks over whether Rovanperä is now gearing up for a WRC return in 2027 with the same team he won two world titles with in 2022 and 2023.
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala conceded discussions are ongoing with Rovanperä over a potential return to the WRC next season.
“He has shown now interest for rallying,” Latvala told DirtFish. “I think he understood that the racing side, going to the Formula 1, is a bit too big a hill to climb. Of course, there’s different series that he could do, but now he’s been interested in rallying.
“We are having some discussions with him, but we have to see what the idea is. Is he ready to drive the full championship and so on? So yeah, we have started some discussions.”
Toyota has run five cars since Rally Islas Canarias in April, the fourth round of the 2026 season; Pajari, who tied for most rally wins with Solberg and finished third in the championship, was registered to Toyota’s WRT 2 team rather than its primary manufacturer entrant.
Even with Sébastien Ogier already indicating he will contest fewer rallies in 2027 than this year, that still leaves a question mark of where Rovanperä would slot into Toyota’s line-up were a deal agreed.
Latvala indicated that ensuring Rovanperä remains in the Toyota family was a priority and that, even with the team’s younger drivers Solberg and Pajari already fighting for titles, holding onto the two-time champion rather than letting him compete for a rival team would be a key target.
In addition to his Spain test with the 2027 car, Rovanperä recently undertook passenger run duties following Overmountain Rally Tennesse in a Rally1 car, the same event Ott Tänak contested in a GR Corolla RC2
“We have a great driver line-up but we have to remember that he’s also a world champion with Toyota,” said Latvala. “And, of course, he’s an important driver, so we wouldn’t want to lose him.”
Toyota fielding two three-car teams is understood to be a possibility for next year should it end up running a sufficient number of drivers.
