Toyota confirm comeback to World Rally Championship in 2017 with Yaris WRC

TOYOTA have announced they will return to the World Rally Championship for the 2017 season, ending an absence of nearly two decades.

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January 30, 2015 - 3:37PM

TOYOTA have announced they will return to the World Rally Championship for the 2017 season, ending an absence of nearly two decades.

The Japanese manufacturer will return with a WRC-spec version of their Yaris hatchback, currently in development by Toyota Motorsport GmbH.

Toyota, three-time WRC champions in the past, confirmed their intentions to return to the sport they once dominated during their 2015 motorsport press conference in Japan.

The move is a boost to the WRC which currently has Volkswagen, Citroen and Hyundai competing in a works capacity.

The Yaris WRC, which has already undergone initial testing, will undergo continuing development in 2015 and 2016 before the marque’s full return at the start of the 2017 season.

“We plan to start the competition again in 2017,” Akio Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation, declared to the gathered media.

“The last time we competed was in 1999. That makes me think that today we are not announcing a return, but perhaps a start. We must begin again from scratch.”

The new Yaris WRC alongside its Corolla WRC predecessor.

Although Toyota has not yet decided on drivers for the 2017 season, Stephane Sarrazin will dovetail test driving in 2015 alongside his duties for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship. Sebastian Lindholm and Eric Camilli have also been chosen as test drivers for 2015.

The new Yaris WRC being tested.

Toyota were regular competitors in world rallying between 1973 and 1999, with their factory-backed efforts led by the German-based Toyota Team Europe.

Along with 43 rally wins, the marque clinched four drivers’ world championships with Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol, and three manufacturers’ world championships with the Celica GT-Four and the Corolla WRC.