Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team will run two separate teams with two different cars when the World Rally Championship’s new rules arrive in 2027. Reigning champion Elfyn Evans leads the new GR Celica Rally1 squad. Former title winners Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä return to drive the 2027 GR Yaris Rally1.

Two squads, one headquarters

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) has confirmed it will enter the 2027 FIA World Rally Championship as two separate teams. Toyota Racing will give the GR Celica Rally1 its debut. Gazoo Racing Toyota will run a new 2027 version of the GR Yaris Rally1.

Both teams will be run from the same base in Jyväskylä, Finland. The company says it is preparing to enter up to six factory cars on each rally. It says both teams will be equal contenders for victory, and that the rivalry between them should help it develop better cars.

The line-ups were presented at the Jyväskylä headquarters. The day before (2 November), the team held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new technical centre now being built at nearby Majajärvi. The TGR-WRT name stays with the Finnish development company.

Toyota Racing: the GR Celica returns

The Celica name has a long history in Toyota’s rallying past. In 2027 it will be raced by the three drivers who fought for the 2026 title until the last stage.

Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin begin their eighth straight full season with the team as reigning drivers’ and co-drivers’ champions. The pair have started more rallies for Toyota than anyone else. They won their first world titles this year after finishing second five times before. Evans took the 2026 crown by five points from Oliver Solberg and six from Sami Pajari.

Solberg and his British co-driver Elliott Edmondson stay with the team. In their first full season with TGR-WRT they finished second, won three rallies and won more stages than any other crew. They had won the WRC2 title in a GR Yaris Rally2 in 2025.

The third crew is Finns Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen. In only their second full top-level season, they finished third overall with three wins and nine podiums from 13 events.

It will be very different from what we’ve been used to, so there’s some work ahead for everyone to adapt and get the most out of it.

That was how Evans described the challenge of the new car.

Gazoo Racing Toyota: champions come back

Estonians Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja rejoin the team they won the 2019 world title with in the Toyota Yaris WRC. In their first spell with Toyota they won 10 WRC rounds over two seasons. Tänak says he has already been working with the team this year in a development role.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston also join the Gazoo Racing Toyota side. In 2026 they took their first WRC wins, in Kenya and Croatia. Katsuta also became the first Japanese driver ever to lead the championship.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen return after a year away and will contest selected events. The Finnish pair won back-to-back titles with TGR-WRT in 2022 and 2023, and Rovanperä became the youngest-ever world champion. He says his health was his main priority this year. Once he was fit to drive again, he tested the development car.

This team has always felt like family to me, and in a way I never really felt that I had left.

Because Rovanperä will do only part of the season, other drivers can join the line-up. The team says these could include selected appearances by nine-time world champion Sébastien Ogier. Young drivers from its GR WRC Challenge Program are also possible.

New rules, equal cars

Both cars are built to the new WRC Car regulations. These aim to make the top Rally1 class more accessible and the competition closer. Toyota says the GR Celica Rally1 and GR Yaris Rally1 will have equal power and performance. The team is finishing six days of rally simulation testing with its 2027 prototype in central Finland today (3 November).

Young drivers move up

Toyota also set out 2027 plans for its Challenge Program:

  • Yuki Yamamoto, who took his first WRC2 podium at Rally Japan, returns to WRC2 for a championship campaign on selected rallies.
  • Jaspar Vaher and Takumi Matsushita will do more WRC rounds in Europe and Japan.
  • Rio Ogata and Kanta Yanaguida finished first and second in Finland’s SM2 class and will make more WRC3 appearances.
  • Shotaro Goto’s time in the programme has ended.

More details on the two cars and their liveries will be released before the 2027 season. The team expects to complete homologation before the end of this year.

Source: newsroom.toyota.eu