Toyota could rent out fourth Yaris in 2023

The Japanese marque announced its 2023 line-up earlier today - with Takamoto Katstuta stepping up to score points for Toyota’s main squad on selected alternated drives with Sébastien Ogier. Katsuta will also contest the events Ogier enters but will not score points. 

What that means, however, is that there could be a fourth Yaris going spare on rallies which Ogier does not choose to compete in. 

Speaking just hours after his team’s driver announcement, Latvala revealed that Toyota is open to renting the spare car out to privateer drivers should there be a demand for it. 

“It is now clear that our line-up is what we will go with for the season,” said Latvala, referencing Friday morning’s announcement. “But, of course we have been considering that - on [seven] events where we have a fourth car available - we would consider a renting option.

“But this is purely on renting, nothing else,” he insisted. “If there is somebody interested in renting a car, we are looking at that option. At this point we don’t currently know if it will happen, but we are of course collecting data to see if there are drivers who are interested in that.”

“That fourth car that is a rental option is 100 per cent for business - we are not targeting to score points. We have got some requests but we have not made any decision at this point."

Toyota has steered away from customer programmes until recently, when it unveiled its GR Yaris Rally2 at last week’s FORUM8 Rally Japan.