The reigning WRC constructors’ champion has announced new contracts with Rovanpera, Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta following Toyota’s dominant 1-2-3 at last weekend’s season finale in Japan. Rovanpera, Evans and Ogier each scored three wins this year to help Toyota to a sixth world title.
Evans, runner-up to Rovanpera in his year’s title race, will contest a full season alongside Katsuta, while eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier is set for a third partial campaign after retiring from full-time competition at the end of 2021.
Newly crowned two-time world champion Rovanpera has signed a new multi-year deal but will contest only a part-time programme in 2024.
Rovanpera wishes to “recharge his batteries” from the demands of the WRC next year before returning for a full-time programme in 2025.
The 23-year-old made the step up to WRC’s top flight in 2020 with Toyota and has since scored 11 wins on his way to back-to-back world titles in 2022-2023. This year he became only the sixth driver in WRC history to defend the world title.
“I am really excited to have signed a multi-year contract with TGR-WRT and to continue working with the team,” said Rovanpera, whose exact 2024 schedule is yet to be defined.
“Next year I am only going to be driving some of the events and the biggest reason for this is that I have been driving rally cars for 15 years already, which is quite a long time, and while the last seasons have been amazing of course, they have also been really demanding mentally and physically.
“So I felt that now would be a good moment to take a year for recharging the batteries, and then come back again full-time to fight for the championship once more with a full attack.”
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Podium: Winners Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, second place Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, third place Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
After securing a third consecutive constructors’ title Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala had no reason to alter his driver line-up for next year.
“We are very happy to be keeping our winning driver line-up together for the future,” said Latvala. It’s great to know that we have such a strong squad of drivers who feel at home in our car and our team and want to continue working with us.
“Kalle’s programme will be a bit…
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