TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC eager to get started

When I attended the WRC in Finland in July 2014 as a spectator, many fans asked when Toyota would be returning to the rally.

Six months later, we decided to return to WRC, and today it is my great pleasure to present the car to compete in WRC, with our team members who have prepared for it and the partners who have supported us in that effort.

I was extremely surprised and delighted that even after more than 10 years, many people remembered that once Toyota competed in WRC.

First, I would like to express my gratitude to, and respect for, the those fans who waited 17 years for this day and also all the rally organizers, participants and automakers who have safeguarded and furthered the sport of rally during our absence. Thanks to all of you, we're back here.

At the same time, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my respect for everyone who created a strong bond between rally and Toyota and etched that bond into people's memory, including the late Ove Andersson, who launched Toyota's team in the 1970s and led since then; the late Björn Waldegård, who catapulted Toyota to fame in WRC in the 1980s; and Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen, and Didier Auriol, who captured drivers' championships for Toyota in the 1990s.

Because they involve competition on all types of roads, rallies are the optimal stage on which to hone the capabilities of both people and cars. Toyota has not been seen on that stage for a long time, but I'm truly happy that we're back.

Both people and cars are trained and strengthen when they are exposed to conditions that exceed the imagination during competition.

Tommi Mäkinen has won the WRC events numerous times, and he has the experience of competing in a variety of cars, including Mitsubishi and Subaru entries.

Precisely because we understood that Tommi could give Toyota a variety of experiences that were unimaginable until now, we asked him to lead our car- and team-building effort.

As I said after this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing "hates" to lose. Rest assured that the same attitude applies to WRC.

The other day, I had the pleasure of sitting in the driver's seat of our Yaris WRC and driving the car a few miles with Tommi.

Perceiving the car's sound and smell, the feel of the steering wheel and pedals, and, more than anything else, the look on Tommi's face, I was able to share with him a feeling of confidence in our ability to compete with this car.

We, including members from Finland, Germany, and Japan led by Tommi, will be doing our very best throughout this final month, right up until the WRC begins, so that we can―as quickly as possible―assure long-time fans that Toyota is back as the king of this kind of event and put smiles on old and new fans' faces by affirming their choice to support our team. I hope that you'll support TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, a team that hates losing more than anything else, as we compete in the WRC.

Akio Toyoda