Toyota Gazoo Racing announced its motorsport plans for 2022, including the teams for the WRC, WEC, Dakar Rally, and Super GT series. During the online event hosted in Tokyo, Toyota gave us preview of the GR Yaris Rally1, a hybrid rallycar designed to comply with the new WRC regulations for the upcoming 2022 season. 2021 was a successful year for Toyota in WRC since they won all three of the manufacturers’, drivers’ (Sébastien Ogier), and co-drivers (Julien Ingrassia) titles for the first time since 1994. Their goal for 2022 is to repeat this success with a new car and four crews – Sébastien Ogier / Benjamin Veillas (France), Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen (Finland), Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin (UK), and Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm (Finland) under the leadership of team principal Jari-Matti Latvala.
While the production-spec GR Yaris
homologation special was unveiled in 2020, Toyota kept using the old model in
WRC until this year. The reason for that is that 2022 marks a big change in the
regulations so the Japanese automaker deemed it the right time to present their
brand new rallycar. As its name suggests, the GR Yaris Rally1 will compete at
the top class of the WRC (Rally1) which requires all cars to use hybrid
powertrains consisting of a 1.6-liter direct-injection turbocharged
four-cylinder engine mated to an electric motor that adds 134 hp and 180 Nm of torque, and a 3.9 kWh battery pack with carbon fiber
housing positioned close to the rear axle.
Toyota showed us a development prototype
of the car covered in the signature camouflage of Gazoo Racing, similar to the
one that was spotted testing in WRC stages a few months ago. While adopting the
same three-door body, the model is significantly wider than the road-going GR
Yaris thanks to a new bodykit. This includes ultra-wide fender add-ons, custom
bumpers, hood-scoops, a set of large and high-mounted side air-intakes, and a
massive rear spoiler with extra fins on the profile.
The GR Yaris Rally1 will race against
M-Sport’s Ford Puma Rally1 and Hyundai’s i20 Rally1 in the next season,
starting from the Rally Monte Carlo on January 20-23.
