Toyota explains call to run different car models in WRC 2027

Toyota has explained its strategy to run two different Rally1 models and split its six driver line-up into two separate teams for the 2027 World Rally Championship.

The reigning champions unveiled an unusual approach for next season by homologating GR Celica and GR Yaris body shapes built to the new technical regulations.

Toyota has stressed that underneath the bodies the two cars are identical and the whole idea originated from its World Rally Team chairman Akio Toyoda.

It will see defending champion Elfyn Evans, Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari drive the GR Celica - not featured in the WRC since the 1990s - under the banner of Toyota Racing.

The GR Yaris, meanwhile, will run under the Gazoo Racing moniker and be driven by Takamoto Katsura, plus returning world champions Ott Tanak and Kalle Rovanpera - the latter contesting a partial campaign.

Toyota sees the two team, two car concept as a way to promote multiple products, create stories and improve fan engagement.

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala told Motorsport.com: “The new regulation has a nice aspect in that the new cost capped cars are less expensive than the previous generation, so the cost reduction will help you to run more cars with the same budget.

“We're thinking about the budget, so we thought about adding more cars because we have the budget to run them. The second thing, we wanted to improve the fan engagement with the drivers and teams and the cars.

“If you think about the Celica and its story from the seventies, eighties, and nineties, and winning three titles in the nineties and how iconic a model it was. I think for Toyota’s history it is very important. I think it is a great idea for the fans.”

Determining how to split the teams was achieved without input from the respective crews, according to Latvala.

“In that sense it [choosing the teams] was quite easy because when Ott won his championship, it was in a Yaris, so he goes into the Yaris team,” he added.

“Kalle had won two titles in the Yaris so he went into that team. We wanted to put the new young generation [Solberg and Pajari] in the new car [Celica] plus the current champion in Elfyn, so that was how it was done.”

Jari-Matti Latvala

Photo by: Toyota Racing

While the GR Yaris and GR Corolla will boast noticeable differences in their body shapes, Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler has ensured the cars will be identical, even down to the drag figures each body produces.

He said: "This [achieving drag parity between the cars] has been one of the technical challenges of taking on the regulation in this way.

“We had to develop two cars which were comparable to each other as well as on a higher level than the opposition.

“The number of constraints was much higher. This has been one of the targets from the beginning to make sure that the two cars are comparable.

“And the only area where they're different is the body shape and therefore the aerodynamics. This has been part of the development all along to develop them step by step. That doesn't mean they're identical in physical shapes because they can't be.

“So you have to take the steps to ensure the end result is the same, which anyway, is not different from a normal technical development because you have an aerodynamic target to achieve.

“You work towards it normally with one model, but what we've done is work towards that target with two models and allowed there to be physical differentiation between the two models in order to achieve the same target. It essentially makes your life much more difficult.”