The man heading the Japanese company’s return in 2017 with its Yaris, Finnish four-time world champion Tommi Makinen, has admitted that signing the right driver has just become tougher.Toyota had been courting Northern Irishman Kris Meeke, the only driver to win a World Rally Championship round this year in a car other than a Volkswagen Polo R.
Meeke, who scored his maiden WRC victory in Argentina in April, last week agreed to stay with Citroen for another three years, even though the French company is skipping next year’s WRC to prepare for 2017, when new regulations will allow wilder cars.
In re-signing Meeke, Citroen said he would do “several rallies” in 2016 with satellite team PH Sport and it is now known that activity will start at the Monte Carlo Rally in the third week of January.
VW’s three gun drivers – triple world champion Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala and Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen – are staying put, leaving Hyundai’s Belgian, Thierry Neuville, as Toyota’s main option.
Norwegian Mads Ostberg finished ahead of Citroen teammate Meeke in the 2015 WRC and has returned to Ford squad M-Sport for next season but could be a contender for a Toyota drive in 2017, although he would miss next year’s development phase.
Neuville and Ostberg are both one-time WRC event winners – the former in Germany in 2014, the latter in Portugal in 2012 after Finn Mikko Hirvonen was disqualified. Hyundai recruited Neuville in late 2013 as the team leader of its new WRC campaign, but he has fallen from favour there, coinciding with the emergence of New Zealander Hayden Paddon.
Toyota may find itself not being able to entice a driver better than Neuville.
“It’s true that there are not many drivers,” Makinen said.
“Neuville might be the only one of the leading drivers without the contract. We would very, very much like to have seen Kris [Meeke] as part of our team. [But] I understand his decision and his point of view as our product is not ready yet.
“What we need to do is look at the overall picture and decide what is the target for us – what is the percentage of young drivers we need and what for experienced drivers. We need some experience, but at the same time it might be better for us to concentrate on the future,” Makinen.
Makinen and fellow Finns Mikko Hirvonen – a retired four-time world championship runner-up now concentrating on marathon and classic rallies – and Juho Hanninen are likely to handle testing of the Yaris, due to start in March.
Makinen also has access to a couple of young Japanese drivers for the project – Daiki Arai, 21, son of double Production WRC champion Toshi Arai, and Takamoto Katsuta, 22, son of six-time Japanese rally champion Norihiko Katsuta.
No Australian rally drivers have been linked with the Toyota project.