The Toyota World Rally Team has confirmed its driver line-up for the upcoming 2025 season. The team will field four Rally1 cars for every round and an additional fifth car for selected events.
The biggest news is that Sami Pajari will step up to a full-season programme in a Rally1 car with Toyota. The 22-year-old clinched the WRC2 title yesterday with Toyota’s new GR Yaris Rally2 car and competed in three events with a Rally1 car in 2024. The Finn scored his best finish at his home event Rally Finland: P4 overall.
Pajari won’t continue with his 2024 co-driver Enni Mälkönen. Mälkönen confirmed in a social media post that it was “Sami’s decision to make a change”. Pajari’s new co-driver is yet to be announced.
Two-time WRC Champion Kalle Rovanperä returns to the team on a full-time season programme, as was always the plan when he announced that he would do a part-time WRC programme in 2024.
Elfyn Evans, yesterday’s Rally Japan winner, and Takamoto Katsuta have been retained by the team for another full-time programme, making it four full-season programmes with Pajari, Rovanperä, Evans and Katsuta.
Sébastien Ogier also continues with the team. The eight-time WRC Champion stays with the team on the same terms since 2022, doing a partial programme for the fourth season in a row. The Frenchman will focus on the manufacturers’ championship: “Once again my main goal is to give my support to the team in the manufacturers’ championship in a partial programme, and hopefully we can manage to win all three titles.”
Toyota, who sealed the manufacturers’ title in the final stage of the season yesterday, will thus enter five Rally1 cars on selected events when Ogier is competing.
Juha Kankkunen named Deputy Team Principal
Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala will be supported by newly named Deputy Team Principal: four-time WRC Champion Juha Kankkunen: “The 2024 season presented new challenges for our team, but we continued to perform at a high level and kept fighting until the final day to successfully retain our manufacturers’ title.
“For 2025, we are really happy to continue with the same drivers who have been performing strongly for us over recent seasons, and to have more drivers strengthening our efforts for the full championship. It’s also great to welcome Sami Pajari to our line-up thanks to the investment that we are making to develop young drivers. Sami has made great steps this year and we are confident that he’s ready to move up to the highest level.
“Personally, I’m very excited to have the opportunity to combine my role as Team Principal with my passion for driving, competing with the legendary Toyota Celica, and I’m really pleased that Juha Kankkunen will take on the role of Deputy Team Principal to support me and the team on WRC events: he knows the team well and brings a lot of experience to the role,” Latvala said.
Toyota is the first team to confirm its driver line-up for the 2025 WRC season. The season will traditionally start at the Monte Carlo Rally (23-26 January)
Photo: Toyota GAZOO Racing
