WRC
Kankkunen hails teamwork behind Toyota’s historic 10th WRC title
Toyota’s sixth consecutive manufacturers’ crown has drawn it level with Lancia on a record 10 WRC titles – a milestone carrying special significance for Deputy Team Principal Juha Kankkunen.
Few people are better placed to appreciate the scale of Toyota GAZOO Racing’s latest achievement than Kankkunen.
The four-time world champion drove for Lancia during its famous run of six consecutive manufacturers’ titles between 1987 and 1992. Then, in 1993, he became drivers’ world champion with Toyota in the same season that the Japanese marque secured its first manufacturers’ crown.
More than three decades later, Kankkunen is part of the management team which has taken Toyota to the same benchmarks.
Oliver Solberg’s victory at Rally Chile BIOBÍO confirmed Toyota’s sixth successive manufacturers’ championship and its 10th overall, equalling both of the long-standing records established by Lancia.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to secure another manufacturers’ championship with this team,” said Kankkunen.
“I was involved in some of Lancia’s championships as a driver, and some of the first titles won by Toyota, but I’m so happy to be part of this team now too.
WRC Rally Chile Biobío 2026, Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin
© WRC
“The atmosphere in the team and the way that everyone works together is fantastic.”
Toyota’s route to title number 10 stretches back to 1993 and 1994, when it became the first Japanese manufacturer to win the WRC manufacturers’ championship and then successfully defended that crown. A third followed in 1999 before Toyota withdrew from the championship.
After returning to the WRC in 2017, Toyota added another manufacturers’ title in 2018 before beginning its current uninterrupted run in 2021.
Its 2026 campaign has been particularly emphatic.
Solberg’s Chile success was Toyota’s 11th victory from the opening 12 rallies, as well as its eighth one-two finish of the season. Perhaps even more strikingly, every one of Toyota’s five crews has now won at least twice this year.
Takamoto Katsuta claimed back-to-back victories earlier in the campaign, Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier have each won twice, Sami Pajari reeled off three consecutive triumphs in Estonia, Finland and Paraguay, while Solberg added Chile to his season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo success.
That depth has also created one of Kankkunen’s more unusual challenges: judging which drivers are best placed to deliver for the manufacturer on any particular weekend.
“I’ve been in the business for such a long time and I’ve been a driver myself,” he explained. “When you talk with the guys, you can basically feel it. I can feel who is going well and who is maybe not 100 per cent.
“But it’s teamwork. All the guys are good anyway.”
That balance between individual competition and collective strength is something Kankkunen believes has been central to Toyota’s success.
“When they are on the stages they are fighting each other hard and pushing for the best results,” he said, “but they also get on and help each other and the team very well.”
WRC Rally Chile Biobío 2026, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
© WRC | @World
Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda echoed that sentiment after Chile, where Solberg headed Ogier in a Toyota one-two to complete the championship job with two rounds still remaining.
“We are a team that believes in letting our drivers compete on equal terms and decide the outcome on the stages,” Toyoda said.
The manufacturers’ battle may now be settled, but competition within Toyota is anything but.
All five of its drivers remain mathematically in contention for the drivers’ championship, leaving the team free to turn its attention to the remaining individual prize.
