Quote Originally Posted by vkangas View Post
Hi everyone! Long time no see . Here in Finland the news on this are all over the place and Tommi has given a lot of interviews. It seems that some people are rushing little bit too much ahead with their conclusions. I tried to put together a small collection what Tommi himself has said in reliable sources:

-They have started from scratch. Real kick-off was last september and after that quite a lot of things have happened.
-Today they are just reqruting, planning and building the team.
-At this early phase is operated from Tommi's current facilities in Puuppola, Finland as they wanted to get things going as fast as possible.
-After the initial planning phase they will evaluate the WRC HQ location. Decision should be after the summer and practically all options are open.
-According to Tommi TMG at Köln has so many projects going on that they want to build up a new organization just for rally. Cooperation with Köln will happen especially with aerodynamics and engines. They want this new rally team to be full of ambitious young people with high motivation and fresh ideas.
-Estimated team size is 100+ persons and target is to get atleast 10 cars ready for the 2017 start. R2 and R5 programs will follow
-There is only small team hired at the moment. Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen have been hired to work with the young drivers development program. Mikko is also likely to participate in testing the car
-Budget is "enough". The only goal is to win the championship.
Great news!

Btw, Toyoda is a huge petrolhead: his racing alter ego is "Morizo"!

racing in Nurburgring: https://youtu.be/CXD5aLJa9ro
testing the Yaris: https://youtu.be/QY8A4m0g5aw
rallying with Makinen: https://youtu.be/_dgrC8pJw88