Fresh from his famous victory on Rally Japan in November 2024, Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) driver Elfyn Evans paid a visit to Toyota GB’s Eco-HQ in Surrey with a special objective: to collect his brand-new GR Yaris road car.
With a raft of technical, design and construction enhancements aimed at delivering an even greater driving experience, the latest GR Yaris builds upon the strengths of the original version and instantly become as desirable among knowledgeable car fans.
“I bought a first-generation GR Yaris, which I still have, and with this new version being further enhanced, I didn’t hesitate to get one when the opportunity presented itself,” says the Welshman. “It’s such a great driver’s car. Currently there are very few cars on the market like it. Most new cars are very much ‘driver assisted’. I particularly like the look of this facelifted version – it’s purposeful, especially with the ‘GR-Four’ branding on the intercooler. It marks the car out as something special.”
On world rally events, Elfyn gets to see the passion GR Yaris is evoking among enthusiasts all over the world: “It really is a driver’s car bred from competition. It has had a massive impact in terms of building the GR brand for Toyota. It has helped to reconnect the brand to a world of driving enthusiasts.”
How GR Yaris plays a vital role in Elfyn Evans’ preparation
Elfyn and his navigator, Scott Martin, experienced the latest GR Yaris during their preparation for Rally Japan. Prior to flat-out through the special stages during the rally, the competing crews drive the route at slower speeds in a four-wheel-drive road car (a process known as ‘recce’), carefully checking the route and their pace notes.
“For Rally Japan we used the latest GR Yaris as a recce car for the first time. The car as we use it for the recce is slightly modified but not as much as people might think,” he explains. “We add under-floor protection and we run a different set of dampers because we need additional ride height, but otherwise the car is more or less standard and it is remarkable how strong it is. The suspension arms are all kept as standard [and] we don’t experience any reliability issues with the arms breaking. We drive on roads which are barely fit for a pick-up truck, so the GR Yaris is impressively strong and well built.”
“GR Yaris is impressively strong and well built” – Elfyn Evans
Elfyn agrees that the close connections between Gazoo Racing’s motorsport and road car programmes bring benefits for the enthusiasts who have an opportunity to own the road cars: “When we were in Japan for the rally, we had an opportunity to visit the factories and drive some of the latest GR products. The engineers are always leaning on us for any piece of information that can help them further improve the cars. Feedback from the first GR Yaris has been incorporated into this latest version.”
A winning conclusion on Rally Japan for Elfyn Evans
With victory in Japan, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin brought pride on many levels to Toyota. In addition to winning on Toyota’s home soil, the result secured the WRC Manufacturers’ crown for Toyota for the fourth consecutive season, to the delight of TGR-WRT Chairman Akio Toyoda.
“There are no easy events, but Rally Japan is especially demanding, with so many corners,” he explains. “The roads are very narrow. We had some difficult conditions with some rain in the early stages of the event. There is a lot of tree coverage over the route, and that left the stages quite damp. The asphalt has a relatively low level of abrasion, so that made driving conditions very changeable.
“Whenever you come to the end of an event like that with a good result, it means that little bit more. On top of all that, this time we had a lot more at stake than just trying to win the rally. Winning in Japan and clinching the WRC Manufacturers’ title at the same time meant a lot to Akio-san and the entire team. It was nice to be a part of that.”
Elfyn Evans reflects on the 2024 WRC campaign
2024 marked the fourth time in five seasons that Elfyn has finished second in the end-of-season points – remarkable consistency in such an unpredictable and demanding sport. For a competitive rally driver, the desire to go one better and claim that elusive world title remains unquenchable.
“We’re all there because we want to win, so naturally there’s a touch of disappointment with second in the WRC driver’s standings,” Elfyn admits. “We had a challenging mid-season that put us on the back foot, making the title almost unreachable. We recovered with two seconds and a victory at the end of the year. There are plenty of positives to take even though it is hard to be content finishing second again! It makes us motivated heading into 2025.”
Looking forward to the 2025 WRC season
Directly after Rally Japan, TGR-WRT wasted no time in publicly confirming Elfyn and Scott as an integral part of its driver line-up for 2025, which begins with Rallye Monte Carlo (23-26 January).
“It’s incredible to think I’m about to start my sixth season with Toyota – it has gone so quickly! Of course, we want to win – that’s why we’re there. There have been quite a lot of successes along the way and I’m keen to build on that further. Let’s see if we can keep improving,” he says.
Throwing an extra challenge into the mix in 2025 will be the addition of three new and unfamiliar events to the WRC’s schedule – Canary Islands, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia.
“It’s always challenging when we have new events,” says Elfyn. “It makes the preparation during rally week even more intense – we need to write new pace notes for one thing. With the more familiar events, you can carry information forward from the previous year, so you have a level of confidence in what you did last year and there are reference videos to check. With a new event, you have check every detail to try to find all the surprises.
“I haven’t competed on Rallye Islas Canarias before, but we went to do the recce last year. Then there are a couple of events we know nothing about – Paraguay and Saudi Arabia. From what we understand, both could be quite extreme in terms of rough terrain. It adds an extra degree of unpredictability to the calendar. So having the new rally in Saudi Arabia to round off the season; if things are still quite close in the points standings, anything could happen.”
Bringing Gazoo Racing excitement to the fans
Although Toyota Gazoo Racing has yet to confirm any plans for next year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed (10-13 July), Elfyn would relish the opportunity to reprise his 2024 visit and show off his GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid competition car on British soil.
“I’d love to be back at Goodwood if the opportunity arises,” he says. “It’s always a fantastic weekend. Unfortunately, there isn’t a UK round of the WRC, so Goodwood is a brilliant opportunity to perform locally. It’s also a family friendly environment which gives me the opportunity to show my family what I do. There’s a lot more time to enjoy it with them than I would get on a typical WRC event.”
Another boost for TGR-WRT for 2025 is the new appointment of Juha Kankkunen as Deputy Team Principal. A four-time world champion, who won the last of his titles driving the Toyota Celica ST185 in 1993, Kankkunen will bring considerable experience of success to share with the drivers and other team members, supporting Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala.
“It’s great to have another person in the team who can look at things from a driver’s perspective,” says Elfyn. “There is nobody better than Juha, with all his world championships and everything he’s achieved in the sport. He understands the challenges. Having someone who is used to winning and has the passion and motivation to succeed is great to help drive the team forward.”
In buying another GR Yaris road car, Elfyn Evans is a great exponent of Gazoo Racing’s mission to build ever-deeper passion among car enthusiasts.
“In the 1990s there was always such a strong connection between motorsport and road cars, with the homologation specials and so on,” he says. “The Celica road cars at that time were almost a carbon copy of what you saw competing in WRC on your television screens. With Gazoo Racing, we’ve started to bring that back and create a strong connection between the vehicle owners and the motorsport activities. It is building all the time and it’s great to be a part of that.”
Photography: Andrew Baker (Elfyn Evans with GR Yaris); Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (Rally Japan)
Contents of this article were correct at the time of publication.
