Toyota announces WRC plans

[Rallyper]

Obviously Ogier thinks the Fiesta 2017 wrc is better than the Toyota wrc at the moment.

We don´t know what his assessments were at that time. It´s about more than handling of the car.

[Mirek]

I agree with you. VW set new standards in WRC. They’ve spent millions creating a fabulous in house team that no one could compete. But now they´re leaving and besides their dominant mark and the broken records in what way can we say they’ve help to develop the sport?

Probably in no other way: one can still remember them pushing the promoter to adopt new rules totally disrespectful to WRC heritage and showing no interest about privateer teams and drivers needs, in international or national rally series; their only target was to become a steamroll in WRC.

Should we desire a similar attitude from Toyota? I don’t. Despite all the troubles and misfortunes they can came by choosing a private partner, I really hope Toyota and TMR will be a top contender in WRC and, specially, will be able to provide a wide range of rally cars to private customers around the world, making a serious contribution to the sport development. Just like Ford and MSport have been doing for a long time.

Yes, VW used its power to make the WRC friendly for itself and while we may not like it it's another achievement it managed.

My point was that Toyota's effort shall and will be compared with VW because Toyota is in very similar position like VW.

While it's true that Mäkinen built a whole new team and the car in very short time it's not something what Toyota shall be proud of or any sort of excuse. Toyota has enough resources, had enough time (they started the WRC project long before it was given to Mäkinen) and must have only winning ambitions as anything else makes no sense.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Toyota Europe Verified account
‏@toyota_europe

The #YarisWRC will have a direct impact on expanding the Yaris line-up with a performance-oriented version.

[maciotacio]

Expanding in Finland? Cause all the drivers are Finnish. Just marketing wise it would be nice to have some national variety

BTW has anyone seen a standing start of that beauty? Till now, I haven't noticed it. What are they hiding?

[Rally Power]

My point was that Toyota's effort shall and will be compared with VW because Toyota is in very similar position like VW.

Nope, Toyota will be compared to Hyundai, Citroen or Ford, their future competitors, not with VW or any other past WRC manu.

[itix]

Yes, but Tommi said also that all the contracts are "flexiple".

Completely off topic but...
This reminds me of the best piece of finnish english ever.

Latvala leaned too much on the snowbank in sweden 2015 and went through it... it took the the fans about 8 minutes to get him back up on the road and when, at the stop control, asked why he was late, he replied

"I came too fast in the corner and I ended up in some big tits" (ditch)

[itix]

Let´s see how Monte goes...

Hope everyone remembers who Hyundais 1st Monte went...

I do. I was there and I was even staying in the same place as the some of the Hyundai team. Not so happy faces

Anyway, regarding Toyota... they are treating this as a learning year. Like the approach or not (after all most winning cars came out ready from the very beginning) but it is the path they chose. The future will tell the rest!

Also, let's remember that TMG, previously TTE was started by one guy in his workshop in a half amateur way.

I am not defending Tommi... I too find it a strange way of achieving success and I have raised my eyebrows more than once. On the other hand I am not going to say anything definitive until this venture has had time to set out what it meant to do (which from the very start was said to be a multi year program).

[Marcco]

Yes, VW used its power to make the WRC friendly for itself and while we may not like it it's another achievement it managed.

My point was that Toyota's effort shall and will be compared with VW because Toyota is in very similar position like VW.

While it's true that Mäkinen built a whole new team and the car in very short time it's not something what Toyota shall be proud of or any sort of excuse. Toyota has enough resources, had enough time (they started the WRC project long before it was given to Mäkinen) and must have only winning ambitions as anything else makes no sense.

Yes, Toyota can be compared to VW on car market, but what makes you think Toyota gives this program same amount of money as VW did?
For me it looks more like a venture from Toyota, it seems they give some (just enough) money for private team to do the job and then they will see how it goes. If all goes well - they'll continue, if not (or something else changes) - they can stop easily.
Look at VW - huge amount of money, facilities etc etc etc... and boom it's over. Toyota's approach looks more cautious.

[liposh]

IMHO People from Toyota Japan would like to copy the VW project, make it very professional, put enormous amount of money there and succeed from the very beginning, but they don´t have luck in choice of coworkers so it looks like few villagers from Finnish woods trying to build the WRC car in small garage. I would be happy if Tommi M. proves me wrong.

On the other hand I can see clearly there is enormous improvement in Yaris WRC speed during last weeks. The engine is very strong from the beginning and the suspension set-up is better and better everyday.

[OldF]

Completely off topic but...
This reminds me of the best piece of finnish english ever.

Latvala leaned too much on the snowbank in sweden 2015 and went through it... it took the the fans about 8 minutes to get him back up on the road and when, at the stop control, asked why he was late, he replied

"I came too fast in the corner and I ended up in some big tits" (ditch)

But that’s where he ended up in the end.