A prototype GR Yaris constructed to 2017 WRC laws was developed in 2020 earlier than COVID-19 pressured Toyota to desert its plan, and as an alternative compete with an up to date model of its earlier Yaris.
This new look GR Yaris, which incorporates a radical aero bundle, was on show on the workforce’s new WRC manufacturing facility in Finland, which opened its doorways to the media for the primary time this week.
Toyota’s preliminary plan was to homologate a completely new automotive primarily based across the GR Yaris for 2021 to coincide with the newest specification street automotive GR Yaris.
The squad put a yr and a half into the plan, which resulted within the automotive finishing 4 days of testing in early 2020, earlier than the WRC imposed a testing ban when the COVID-19 pandemic took maintain.
Regardless of restricted testing and growth, the automotive had already confirmed to be faster than its earlier 2017 speciation Yaris, which guided Sebastien Ogier to an eighth world title in 2021 and helped safe Toyota the producers’ title.
Confronted with little time to finish the automotive’s growth earlier than the 2021 season, the workforce elected to change its consideration to future initiatives together with the all-new 2022 Rally1 hybrid.
“This [car] is an unimaginable factor. It’s unbelievable,” Technical director Tom Fowler informed media together with Autosport.
“It’s one thing which might have been driving within the season 2021 aside from the scenario with Coronavirus.
Toyota GR Yaris WRC
Photograph by: Tom Howard
“To make a very new homologation of a brand new utterly new automotive in the course of that was probably not possible.
“Should you recall again to mid-2020 there was a whole take a look at ban in WRC and at then level the take a look at ban got here we had pushed the automotive for 4 days, after which the ban got here and we had been speculated to be introducing that [car in a] matter of months after that.
“It grew to become very difficult however after these 4 days it was already quicker than the Yaris. It was a really disappointing scenario as this automotive is actually unimaginable.”
Fowler additionally revealed that the work put into the automotive was not totally wasted, with among the studying gathered put to make use of on its 2022 GR Yaris Rally1 hybrid, that has received 5 of seven occasions this yr.
“We did be taught quite a bit from this automotive and for Rally1 there was some studying, additionally we used among the info to make updates to the earlier WRC automotive,” he added.
“However the best way it was developed as a bundle with the street automotive, it gave so many benefits that it was most likely factor for the WRC this automotive by no means got here [to be].”
Toyota GR Yaris WRC
Photograph by: Tom Howard
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