World rallying is anything but formulaic, but the 2025 results sheet could have you fooled.
In terms of the manufacturers’ contest, the first two results of the year look like this: Toyota 1-2; Hyundai 3-4.
After such a tight contest in 2024, Toyota has dominated its rival so far. Naturally, that doesn’t make faces at Hyundai particularly cheery.
“If you ask me whether we’re satisfied with where we are, no we’re not,” Cyril Abiteboul told DirtFish.
“We have Toyota ahead, like it was in Monte Carlo: it’s not satisfying. And we need to work a bit harder on understanding exactly what’s missing. But there is something missing. There is something missing.”
Abiteboul's Hyundai squad hasn't had an answer to Toyota's dominance so far in 2025
But in fairness to Hyundai, Toyota has been relentless. Perfect, even.
Under the revised points system, a manufacturer can now claim up to 60 points per weekend. And after two rallies, Toyota has 120 on the board. Or in other words, a full house.
“If you imagine [that at] the start of the season you have scored 120 points, maximum of the maximum, you can’t really ask for more,” team principal Jari-Matti Latvala beamed.
“So really, really happy for the team and overall the whole driver line-up for the performance.”
That level of dominance has earned Toyota a modern-day WRC record.
What sets Toyota’s 2025 apart
Several other manufacturers – including Toyota itself – have taken a clean sweep from the opening two rounds of the season.
Alpine managed it in the very first season of the WRC (1973), and was copied by Lancia (1975, 1990, 1992), Fiat (180), Audi (1984) and Toyota (1991, 1993).
But this was in the era where only the highest placed car from each manufacturer entry scored points for the manufacturers’ championship.
Stig Blomqvist was part of Audi 1-2s on the opening two rounds of the 1984 season
Audi’s start to 1984 was utterly imperious with a clean sweep of the podium in both Monte and Sweden, but in all other cases these perfect starts did not include consecutive 1-2s.
The same applies to Lancia’s ridiculous run in 1989, where it scored maximum manufacturer points from the first six rounds of the season. It also managed four in 1988, while Peugeot put together a run of three successive maximum points hauls in 1985.
But since the WRC rules changed in 1995 to mandate that two cars score for a manufacturer, no marque has ever collected maximum points from the first two events.
That immediately contextualizes how impressive Toyota’s start to this season has been, but then consider it’s maximized both the powerstage and Super Sunday on these two events as well, and it’s a truly remarkable achievement.
How has Toyota been so good?
Latvala has been open about the fact Toyota got its strategy wrong last year, with only two full-time drivers in the team.
Sébastien Ogier somewhat papered over the cracks with a part-time campaign that verged on full-time as he was asked to step up for his team, while then Kalle Rovanperä took rallying’s equivalent of a gap year on his seven-round program.
Addition of Pajari - and full-time return for Rovanperä - means Toyota now has four full-season entries
This year Rovanperä is back, alongside team-mate Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta, while Toyota has also brought in Sami Pajari for a full-time season.
So Toyota is running twice as many cars permanently, which Latvala believes is making the difference.
“I think what is the difference is that last year, you know, we had only two drivers doing the full championship,” he told DirtFish.
“And I said at the end of last year, ‘that’s the problem. We need to have three drivers fighting for the championship’. And now we [also] have Sami in the second team doing the fourth car.
“That is for me the difference, because then there is a more relaxed environment for the drivers also. The two drivers who were running, Elfyn and Taka, they had the pressure, they had more pressure.
Latvala reckons Evans was under too much pressure to deliver in 2024
“And then Kalle and basically Ogier were able to run with less pressure, but at the same time they did a bit more mistakes because they didn’t need to fight for their own championship.
“So that was the reason for me, clearly: we need to focus with the drivers having a full season and there is only one driver we can have part-time.”
Toyota already leads Hyundai by 48 points in 2025 and, although the season is just two rounds old, it has never been beaten at Safari Rally Kenya since the event returned to the calendar in 2021. It went as far as recording 1-2-3-4 finishes in both 2022 and 2023.
So preserving this unbeaten start to the season next month may not be beyond the realms of possibility.
