In 2018, the team won the championship for manufacturers, Toyota's first since 1999, followed by more wins in 2021 and 2022.[9] The team have also delivered championship titles for drivers and co-drivers every year since 2019.[10]
History
This article is missing information about 2021-2023 seasons. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (January 2023)
In January 2015, Toyota officially announced its intention to return to the World Rally Championship in 2017. The manufacturer had last competed in the series in 1999 before withdrawing ahead of the 2000 season to focus on its Formula One project. For the new project, development of the Yaris WRC was delegated to Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), the division that ran Toyota Team Europe and the previous WRC campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s with Group B and Group A Celicas, and the Toyota Corolla World Rally Car.[11]
In July 2015 however, Toyota President Akio Toyoda elected to reassign responsibility for the project to Tommi Mäkinen, who based the team in his native Finland. Only the engine would be built by TMG, and by this time new World Rally Car regulations due for 2017 forced Mäkinen to shelve the Yaris WRC prototype and start anew.[12][13][14][15]
Also in 2015, Toyota consolidated all its motorsport activities to operate under the banner of Toyota Gazoo Racing, with TMG being renamed Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe.[16]
Toyota Yaris WRC - Jari-Matti Latvala - Buenos Aires Motorshow 2017
The team took their first podium at the Monte Carlo Rally, and took their first win at the next round in Rally Sweden. The team's best result of the season came in Finland, with Lappi taking his first WRC win, Hänninen his first podium finish, although Latvala had to retire from the lead with a mechanical problem.
The team finished the season third in the manufacturers' championship.
2018
Ahead of the 2018 season, Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja left M-Sport to join the team, replacing the crew of Hänninen and Lindström who took new positions within the team. Hänninen remained in a test driver role and Lindström replaced Jarmo Lehtinen as the team's sporting director.[19][20]
In August, the team relocated its service base to a new facility in Estonia, located 8 km from the capital of Tallinn. Headquarters, development, testing and administration remained in Finland.[21]
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT won the 2018 World Rally Championship manufacturers title. With Tommi Mäkinen heading the team, he became the first person in the history of the championship to win both as a driver and as a team principal.[22] Tänak took four rally wins, including three consecutively. Jari-Matti Latvala won once.[23]
2019
In 2019, Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm left to join Citroën after two years with the team.[24]Kris Meeke and Sebastian Marshall were recruited to drive a third car in the championship.[25] Tänak and Järveoja won the driver's and co-driver's championships, although Toyota would finish runners-up to Hyundai in the manufacturers' championship.
In September, Toyota Gazoo Racing completed the purchase of the team and operational assets from Tommi Mäkinen Racing. Mäkinen himself stepped down from the team principal role and became a motorsports advisor to the Toyota Motor Corporation.[26]
2021
The facility in Estonia closed at the end of the 2021 season, with team operations being run from one base in Jyväskylä, Finland.[27]
Jyväskylä, Finland[a]
Japan[b]
Sébastien Ogier
Elfyn Evans
Aaron Johnston
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