Investing in the future has always been the Toyota way in the World Rally Championship.
It bet on Carlos Sainz early in his career and was rewarded handsomely with its first world title. It brought Kalle Rovanperä into the WRC as a rookie and is now honing Sami Pajari for the future.
But the machine never stops. Long-term planning is essential. Sébastien Ogier will tone down the number of rallies in his schedule in 2025, Elfyn Evans is likely closer to the end of his career than the beginning of it and Rovanperä has repeatedly shown interest in other forms of motorsport, even if he’s made a full-time return to rallying this season.
Thinking ahead is critical. If Toyota needed to find another young star for its next generation, who might it look at?
Oliver Solberg is currently aboard a Printsport-run Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 and started his WRC2 campaign with a dominant victory. He’s an obvious candidate. But there’s another driver that, by team principal Jari-Matti Latvala’s assessment, is very similar to Rovanperä and is already blazing his way through the rallying ranks.
Tuukka Kauppinen surprised many by winning the recent Arctic Lapland Rally, usurping Esapekka Lappi and, surprisingly, Rovanperä (who was running WRC-spec tires with shorter studs than the national competitors). There were plenty of eyes on his second WRC outing, Rally Sweden – most important of which belonged to Latvala.
“He [Kauppinen] reminds me a lot of Kalle,” Latvala told DirtFish. “He has been driving for a long time with different kinds of cars. And also the personality: he is very calm and able to handle the pressure. So there are some very close similarities with Kalle Rovanperä.”
Kauppinen’s age belies his experience. Before the teenager had even turned a wheel in competition, he’d spent years privately testing Fiesta Rally4s, production-spec rally cars and CrossCars. He’s averaged two dozen rallies a year for the last four seasons. In that sense, the foundations of his driving are very similar to Rovanperä.
Though Kauppinen’s Rally Sweden wasn’t one to write home about – he went into a snowbank and suffered subsequent mechanical issues – he’d been fighting for the podium places on only his second outing at world level up to that point.
What has stood out with Kauppinen so far is his rate of development. He’s only 18 years old but won his second outing in a Rally2 car at national level in Finland, leads his national championship and in Sweden demonstrated he can run near the front of the pack in WRC2.
Kauppinen set three top-four stage times in WRC2 on Rally Sweden's opening leg
It’s that rate of development that Latvala finds especially intriguing.
“We saw Tuukka Kauppinen driving for the first time in 2024 in Rally Finland with a Rally2 car,” said Latvala.”At that time, he still had a lot of things to learn. But you could see already at the shakedown he had a really, really fast time. You could see the potential.
“What he has done now in six months has been amazing. And he could also handle the pressure very, very well in Arctic when he was fighting with Esapekka Lappi. So for sure, we as the Toyota team are following him and his progress – he’s running with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car. So it’s interesting to see his future.”
Does that mean Toyota is planning to make a move for the young 18-year-old?
No – not yet, anyway. Toyota is biding its time and waiting to see how his progress further evolves before it’ll consider looking at him as part of the long-term future.
“It’s always a bit different when you come to the world championship and you have new stages to tackle,” explained Latvala. “You don’t have the experience that the others have. In rallying, you need to collect experience before you can really start winning the events. So I think in Tuukka’s case, if he continues the on the same path he can get to the top very quickly – but he still needs more experience.”
It’s early days. Kauppinen still has a long path ahead of him. But he’s doing the right things to get noticed by the right people. There’s no room at Toyota’s inn for now – but if at some point in the future there is, he’s already done enough to put himself on its shopping list of potential future drivers.
“We follow [him], but we are not at a point yet to really sign anyone,” Latvala asserted. “There are other guys we want to follow as well but, yes, at the moment I think everybody wants to really see what he is capable of doing.”
Kauppinen will take on the rest of the Finnish national championship this season in a GR Yaris Rally2, and currently leads the way by seven points from three-time champion Teemu Asunmaa. He is expected to make further WRC2 appearances in Estonia and Finland later this year.
DirtFish understands that Kauppinen is also gearing up to expand his 2025 program to include ERC Junior and the Italian national championship aboard a Lancia Ypsilon HF Rally4, though a deal is yet to be agreed.
