Twelve months on from announcing he’d take a sabbatical from the World Rally Championship, Ott Tänak is back for 2027.
Rejoining the Toyota squad he left as world champion at the end of 2019, Tänak’s target is to reclaim the title of world number one next year.
DirtFish’s David Evans sat down with the Estonian to understand why he’s returning to the WRC and why he chose Toyota:
When you walked away, that evening in Japan, we sat around the table and we said: Ott’s not finished. He can’t be finished. Your story in the World Rally Championship has to continue. What were your thoughts at that time and what’s changed in the last years?
“I guess in a way, at the time the decision was taken. I was probably a bit relieved to be honest. It’s been quite some years in the championship and WRC you know it’s inever ending, it’s always going. It’s difficult to get some time to yourself so probably it was some period that things were not really going as smooth as you would have expected and I was probably struggling to find a bit this final edge and therefore I guess it was better to take some time off.”
How long before you started to miss it, to miss the championship?
“I would say probably already during Monte you felt a bit strange not to be there but from the other side I was still happy not to be there on Thursday evening, you know. worrying about the tires! So yeah I guess we had a bit mixed feelings but other than that for sure [there were] some periods you miss it a bit, some others a bit less, but I guess in the end it was just four or five months and [then] we were driving again.”
And that Toyota contact, how did that happen? Who reached out and did you have to think about it?
“I guess the people working in the team, they know me and they have my number. It was no stranger call. Probably been texting a bit, been discussing a bit and I guess quite early in the season they found out that their current drivers will be very busy with the championship and obviously the new car needed quite a bit of driving. From my side as well, still it was busy enough but not so crazy long weeks. A couple of days every week. For me it sounded doable and I could keep myself a bit busy, yeah.”
Thoughts on the car?
“It’s quite a challenging regulation. It’s been a big job for the team to get everything out and for sure we still have some work to do. In a way, challenges are good to have and for sure these days the engineers are on quite a high level so I guess everything is possible. It’s not been easy.”
Talking about who’s the favorite for next year, a lot of people are saying Ott Tänak…
“I mean, in this new regulation, I guess it will be so open. So first, I think, let’s see how we compare to the Rally2s and all the other categories. You know, we have quite many of them now, so I think it will be quite open, at least in the beginning of the year.”
Yeah, but your experience with the car will help, or perhaps not so much, because it’s not like you’re going to a big aero car or anything, is it?
“Yeah, maybe it’s not so, so special, but of course I’ve been able to get used to the car there, you know, to develop it and maybe know a bit how it’s reacting. So I mean, definitely it’s helping.”
And to be back with Toyota, you left the team as a world champion, it must be nice to go back to that family again?
“I mean, it’s probably also the decision has come a bit during this testing phase, you know, where you see how professionally the people are approaching and how they are doing it. So I mean doing it on that level of course it’s a commitment from my side as well. but you see that they are committing so yeah like this it’s nice to do it, yeah.”
