Toyota plots suspension upgrades for GR Yaris Rally1

The team’s technical director Tom Fowler has confirmed in the media that the changes to the car represent a significant update from the car’s current specification.

Fowler said the team had been working on the revisions last year. The teams often introduce new specification parts around March or April, once the specific events like Monte Carlo and Sweden are out of the way. Coming into this season, the only real change to the Yaris was an engine upgrade offering more torque from the 1600cc unit.

Fowler said: “This has been the target of our development through the 2023 season and into 2024.

“It’s going to be quite a big overhaul of the suspension system which involves, I would say, at least 10 components, so it’s quite a big update. It’s not pure performance. There’s reliability in there as well. We have had some suspension-related technical difficulties over the last couple of years, at times.”

The delivery time on the new parts hasn’t been finalised yet.

Fowler added: “It’s currently with the FIA for the next homologation cycle, which is due for publication on 1 March. We haven’t decided as a team yet whether we will bring it in the next rally after March 1 or the one after that. It’s more a logistical question than something else.

“We know we have things that can go wrong in Kenya because we’ve been monitoring them over the last two Safaris, and we may choose to fix those in a more permanent way before we go there [with the new homologation parts]. We haven’t decided yet.”