The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that a meeting was about to be held in Finland this week to discuss about the future and the GR Yaris Rally2, but he postponed it due to his WRC outing, while he explains why he chose to return back to action.
Latvala is set to drive the fourth GR Yaris Rally1 at Rally Finland this week making his come back to the top level after three years as his last outing in WRC was at Rally Sweden of 2020 when he drove a Yaris WRC as a privateer. In 2021, Toyota announced that he would replace Tommi Makinen who decided to quit his role as the person in charge, therefore JML did not have the chance before to compete in a WRC round nor to test the GR Yaris Rally1. Apart from his will to understand what his drivers feel with their car, he also wants to reach the 210 starts in World Rally Championship as he has currently started in 209 events in his WRC career and remains the driver with the most participations in the series.
"There are already some meetings with people wanting to discuss Rally2 and things like that in Finland and other stuff for the future, but I have said I can’t do both", Latvala said.
"I can’t be negotiating things for the future and be focussing on the rally.
"I will be in rally driver mode and I’m going in with that mindset as I will get confused trying to focus on both things".
Finally, he said how his participation in Finland will help him to his team principal role: "Working with the drivers, for example Thierry Neuville said at the Power Stage in Estonia that he lost his hybrid power and he didn't know how much time he would lose.
"I want to understand this hybrid power.
"How much it helps the drivers and how the power comes in the corners and what is the effect when you have it and when you don’t have it.
"Then I can understand our drivers much better in future when I have an understanding of this functionality and the performance of the car".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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