Toyota technical director Tom Fowler says the team’s active World Rally Championship drivers are to increase testing of the new 2027 car in the coming weeks and months.
With all five of Toyota’s drivers locking out the top five positions in the WRC standings, their primary focus has been on 2026.
But now the 2027 Monte Carlo Rally now just over five months’ away, attention is turning to next year and the all-new set of technical regulations.
Fowler confirmed Toyota has carried out over 5000km of testing with its new car in 2026, with Ott Tänak doing plenty of that mileage.
“Our Rally1 drivers have been in the car recently, but I think Ott has done a bit more than them so far because he has a bit more time on his hands,” Fowler told select media including DirtFish.
“But I think we’re going to see in the next months that that’s going to change because I would say up until now, all of our Rally1 drivers have been focusing very clearly on the goal of becoming world champion this season and they’re still focused on that.
“But now, with not so much time left for Monte Carlo 2027, they’re all starting to think ‘but what about next season?’ So for sure they’re going to be keen to be in the car more and probably, as we all know, they all want to be in there as much as Ott because they don’t want to get beaten by him.”
That comment could be perceived as an indication Tänak will return to WRC competition in 2027, having decided to leave Hyundai and take a sabbatical at the end of 2025.
Asked if that means Tänak will indeed drive next year, Fowler responded: “I don’t think we can say whether he’s competing in the team next year or not, but this is a customer formula and the cars are for sale, so you don’t know who you’re going to be racing against.”
Toyota has not revealed which model its new challenger will be based off, but Fowler did say the car is now in its “final evolution “ which is “in the full homologation specification that we intend to do the paperwork on with the FIA”.
He added: “I think that the most important [thing] is to make all of our drivers satisfied, so whoever’s going to be driving in our car next year, they need to work with us to get the car that they need.
“I think we’ve seen in this service park that if you develop the car for one driver then it doesn’t make a good team solution. So I would say we need to make them all happy.”
