
WRC Safari: Toyota looking to bounce back
Reading Time: 1min | Tue. 12.03.24. | 09:28
The team has won the Kenyan event since the Safari returned to the series in 2021
Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has identified this month’s Safari Rally as the perfect event for his squad to bounce back to its winning ways.
The Jyväskylä-based team has lost the first two rounds of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship to its rival Hyundai Motorsport. Latvala is keen to reverse that trend and prevent a start-of-the-season Korean hat-trick.
And recent history is very much on the side of Toyota; since the Safari returned to the series in 2021, the Yaris hasn’t been beaten.
Despite his impressive track record in such a rough event, Latvala remains humble.
“I am really looking forward to Kenya,” Latvala said. “Of course, now that the timing is different, the date has come forward, and it's going to be run in the rainy season – this is going to be quite a big challenge. But I think the reliability has been one of our strengths, which is, of course, good going to Kenya.
We need to be patient over there because the first two events of the season haven't been going the way we hoped. So it's a rally where I think we really want to bounce back.”
Reigning world champion - and former Safari winner – Kalle Rovanperä remains in the team to drive alongside regulars Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta on the Naivasha event set for 28 to 31 March.

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