WRC
Hungry Tänak ready for WRC comeback
Ott Tänak says time away from the FIA World Rally Championship helped rejuvenate his hunger for a return and a shot at securing a second world title with Toyota.
The 2019 world champion has rejoined the Japanese marque for 2027 as part of the team’s expanded six crew line-up, split across two separate teams, with the Estonian set to drive an all-new GR Yaris Rally1 under the GAZOO Racing Toyota banner.
It marks a return to the WRC after a year away following a departure from Hyundai Motorsport at the end of the 2025 campaign. While Tänak has been away from the WRC stages this year, the 39-year-old has remained within the rally sphere after landing a development driver role at Toyota.
Rovanperä will compete alongside Ott Tänak and Takamoto Katsuta
© Toyota GAZOO Racing
It was helping develop Toyota’s new 2027 GR Celica and GR Yaris machines that ultimately convinced Tänak to make a full-time WRC comeback with the brand that guided him to rallying’s ultimate prize in 2019.
"It [this year] was good in a way that we had time for myself [this year] but still I had quite a bit of driving and I could enjoy driving the rally car, said Tänak.
"Definitely, it [the time away from the WRC] has been helping [the hunger for another world title] and I’m grateful for that time and I really enjoyed it to be honest.
Ott Tänak was crowned world champion in 2009 in TGR colours
© At World
“I guess at some moment you start to miss a bit the competition and obviously the work. The team is professional, there is no question, and the way we've been working I think it's also something that convinced me that we should still work together and go racing.
“There is no question that the team has grown a lot [since 2019]. It was still a very young team when I joined it for the first time, and now in the meantime, we can see the history already behind [it], and many more drivers have come on board. Generally, inside the team, it's very competitive. So definitely there are many changes from 2019.”
Tänak is fully aware that the fight for supremacy within the Toyota camp next year with be intense with no less than three world champions in the ranks including defending champion Elfyn Evans and the returning two-time champion Kalle Rovanperä. Other team-mates Oliver Solberg, Sami Pajari and Takamoto Katsuta all have multiple WRC wins under their belts too.
“It has always been like this but with less drivers but the lineup has been growing and the competition is there. Let’s see how it goes – we know that all of them are able to win and I think on the stages it will be very tight,” Tänak added.
