Role reversal for Jari-Matti Latvala at the Rally Finland (August 3 to 6): A good three and a half years after his last start in the World Rally Championship (WRC), the Toyota team boss will slip back into the role of driver and at his Home rally with a GR Yaris Hybrid at the start. The Finn announced this on Monday morning.
“Our Chairman of the Board, Akio Toyoda, has given me a very special opportunity: I will take part in Rally Finland myself and drive a Toyota GR Yaris Hybrid,” says Latvala in a video. “It’s a great honor and I really have to say thank you to Morizo [Spitzname von Toyoda] thank. He’s a huge rally fan and I’m sure he’ll be following our team and my own performance very closely.”
Together with the longtime Toyota boss, who is himself a big rally fan, Latvala also made plans for his comeback in the World Rally Championship during a visit to Japan at the end of 2022, as he revealed to ‘wrc.com’.
Latvala wants to experience the Rally1 car
“I told him I dreamed of driving a Rally1 car because over the past 20 years I’ve seen all the world rally cars and all the evolutions of those cars, but I have no experience in Rally1 and I would like to experience that before I’m 40,” says the 38-year-old, who contested the Rally Sweden for the last time in the World Rally Championship at the beginning of 2020.
Latvala quickly secured Toyoda’s approval, so the search for a suitable date began. “For this season we had the fourth car available and suddenly, right at the beginning of the year, Akio said: ‘Hmm, we can do it this year, let’s do it this year!’ Then he also said he was coming to Rally Finland and we thought that might be a good idea. So it was decided.”
The fourth Toyota is available to Latvala in Finland as part-time driver Sebastien Ogier does not compete in the fast gravel rally. His co-driver on his return to the WRC cockpit will be long-time Toyota test driver Juho Hänninen, with Toyoda officially standing in for him as team principal.
Already a record starter in the WRC
Ahead of his comeback, Latvala is aware that switching to the hybrid car will be a huge challenge with just one day of testing ahead of time. “But whatever, it’s more about the experience and enjoying it. I’m not building a new career as a driver,” said the Finn. “If we finish somewhere between the top 5 and top 10, we have achieved our goal.”
With his surprise comeback, Latvala has cemented its status as a record starter in the World Rally Championship. With 209 to date, he has competed in more rallies than any other driver in history.