The questions Safari will help answer

Two rounds into the 2025 World Rally Championship season, and some patterns are starting to emerge.

Elfyn Evans and Toyota have grabbed the early initiative in both championship battles, but will that trend continue with the winter rallies now done and dusted?

That’s just one of the many questions this week’s Safari Rally Kenya should help answer about the direction of this WRC season.

Has Hyundai got an answer?

Toyota’s unprecedented clean sweep of both Monte Carlo and Sweden has left Hyundai already staring at a 48-point deficit to the rival it entered last season’s final stage net level with.

And the bad news potentially continues given Hyundai hasn’t claimed a Safari Rally podium since 2021. Toyota meanwhile has taken a 1-2 each and every year the rally’s been back on the calendar.

History however is there to be broken, and team principal Cyril Abiteboul has targeted a podium finish to kick off its resurgence against Toyota.

Using its 2024-spec i20 for the final time, that’s the minimum Hyundai needs if it wants to keep Toyota under pressure in this year’s manufacturers’ championship.

Is Katsuta finally ready to win rallies?

Sweden feels like a long time ago now, but Takamoto Katsuta arrives in Africa in a rich vein of form after what many feel was his finest WRC performance yet at round two.

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala declared it now finally means Katsuta is ready to win WRC rallies, and in theory Kenya should be a strong one for the Japanese who has only failed to reach the podium once in his four previous visits.

Whether Katsuta will actually win is not the real question. Instead, this weekend should start to answer whether Sweden was a genuine turning point, or a momentary peak.

Has Rovanperä got on top of the tires?

Arguably the biggest question heading into Safari week rests on the shoulders of the double world champion Kalle Rovanperä.

After his public struggles to get on top of the Hankook rubber in Monte Carlo and Sweden, will he finally have cracked the code as the WRC switches to gravel?

For the good of his season, the Finn needs to have made progress given gravel is the majority surface. Because despite lying a net second (behind part-time Ogier) in the championship, 2025 is the first of Rovanperä’s WRC career where he’s failed to podium in either of the first two rounds.

Are the Hankooks durable on gravel too?

But while there is an onus on Rovanperä to reverse the tide, tire supplier Hankook also has a question to field.

Will its tires be just as durable on gravel as they have been on other surfaces?

Hankook has made no effort to disguise its priority in providing safe and durable tires, so in all likelihood the trend will continue in Kenya.

But this is the roughest rally the new rubber has faced so far, so arguably it’s also their biggest test to-date.

Can Munster hit back at McErlean?

After fighting for the top-four and winning his first ever WRC stage at Monte Carlo, Grégoire Munster came back to earth with a bang in Sweden with a distant eighth place finish, where he was even outpaced by his rookie team-mate Josh McErlean.

Munster’s hardly the most experienced campaigner either, but that wasn’t the best look for a driver who stated before the season began that he wanted to try and replicate what Adrien Fourmaux did at M-Sport last year.

The Safari opens the door for an underdog hero to emerge, and both of M-Sport’s youngsters will hope it’s them. It will be equally intriguing to see how McErlean fares after his strong speed in Sweden – was that circumstance driven, or something we should now expect?

Will Evans continue to outshine the rest?

For all the downplaying both driver and team have been doing since Sweden, there’s no denying Elfyn Evans has marked himself out as a real contender for the 2025 drivers’ title.

Never before has he started a season as strongly as this and, coupled to the struggles of his world champion rivals, his lead is substantial.

The question is: will it continue to grow in Kenya? Will Evans still be head and shoulders above the rest? Or have his rivals caught up?

Is Toyota’s Rally2 car Škoda-strong?

With several WRC2 wins, the WRC2 title and plenty of national rally wins all over the world, there’s not a lot left for Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally2 to prove.

But this week is the first time it’s ever been rallied in Africa, and four examples will take the start courtesy of Oliver Solberg, Jan Solans, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Diego Domínguez.

The Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 is recognized as a very strong car, so 2024 winner Gus Greensmith is unquestionably the benchmark the Toyotas need to topple.

We know the Yaris is fast, but is it as durable as the Fabia?

Will the drivers take a stand?

When Sébastien Ogier was handed a suspended €30,000 fine for comments made at last year’s Acropolis Rally Greece, both he and good friend Ott Tänak opted to stay silent during stage-end and media interviews on the first day of the succeeding round in Chile.

In the wake of Adrien Fourmuax’s €10,000 fine for using inappropriate language at a stage-end in Sweden last month, the WRC crews clubbed together to form WoRDA (World Rally Drivers’ Alliance) and called for a discussion with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Will there be any developments this week in Kenya? Might drivers choose to boycott stage-end interviews by way of taking a stand? Or will it be business as usual? The Safari will provide a development in this story either way.

What kind of team principal will Kankkunen be?

Juha Kankkunen was around at last year’s season-ending Rally Japan, and this year’s season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, but Safari is the first time he’ll stand alone as Toyota’s team principal – present without Jari-Matti Latvala by his side.

With three Safari wins as a driver, Kankkunen has plenty of wisdom to impart. But what kind of team principal will be?

Will his style be the same as Latvala’s, or different? From the outside, other than speaking to him in media zones instead, will we notice any difference? It’s not long until we get out first clue.