Ott Tanak has taken on a test driver role at Toyota to help develop the Japanese marque’s all-new car for the 2027 World Rally Championship.
As first reported by Dirtfish, Toyota has since confirmed to Motorsport.com that the 2019 world champion has joined the team to help with the development of its 2027 WRC challenger, built to new technical regulations that will come into force next year.
Tanak has been absent from the WRC this season after the former Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport-Ford driver announced plans to take a sabbatical from full-time driving in rallying’s top tier at Rally Japan in November last year.
This week the Estonian returned to the wheel of a WRC car jumping aboard Toyota’s 2027 prototype as part of a new testing role with the team.
Toyota began testing it last year and has racked up more than 2000km with outings conducted on asphalt, snow and gravel. Prior to Tanak, the testing had been carried out by Juho Hanninen and the team’s current full-time Rally1 drivers Elfyn Evans, Oliver Solberg, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari.
Toyota is the only mainstream automotive manufacturer that is known to be developing a new car that adheres to the WRC’s new technical regulations that will come into force from 2027.
WRC 2027 Rally car
Next year the cars will be built to a €345,000 cost cap and will be largely based around the current Rally2 cars. They will feature a suspension set out in a double wishbone configuration, with braking and steering systems derived from current Rally2 specifications.
Images and videos of the car in testing have emerged across social media in recent weeks and months. The vehicle features a vastly different shape compared to the brand’s current GR Yaris Rally1, creating speculation as to which model of car Toyota will contest the 2027 season.
For now the team has remained tightlipped on the car’s identity with its head of engineering Kevin Struyf describing it as a ‘prototype” ahead of the team’s final iteration of its 2027 machine.
“It’s just a prototype rally car at the moment,” he said. “In 2027 the regulation changed for the first time in rally where the body is quite open, so the choice of the manufacturer is not really clear where we want to go, so it’s just a base mule car, a prototype car.
“A lot of people get excited about some model, but there is nothing about any model at the moment, it’s just a prototype.
“Basically, we are continuing the development of the mule car that we have seen in Portugal, and the car will continue to do some tests this month [April].
Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“Quite soon, another chassis is in the build, and we will test a bit more, let’s say, the final model, because the problem is that there were some technical elements that weren’t super clear or super defined by the FIA [when we started development].”
Toyota has conducted back-to-back tests comparing its prototype with its current GR Yaris Rally2 machine.
“It’s a Rally2 car or very close, so there is nothing that makes the car faster than a Rally2 car at the moment,” added Struyf.
“It’s a different Rally2 car with a bit different dimensions, different suspension, which is one of the main topics of 2027, where we have for the first time since a long time ago in rally, the double wishbone suspension. It is like our current Rally2 car at the moment, and this is our benchmark and what we want to beat.
“We have been checking [against our GR Yaris Rally2], but just to make sure that we are not completely wrong. I would say, [the feedback from the drivers] is quite good at the moment.
“There are things to improve, which is always the case when you go to a new car with new dimensions, there are always pros and cons but we feel we have good tools to develop a good car.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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