2022 and 2023 WRC champion Kalle Rovanpera will not participate in all stages this year, and title holder Sébastien Ogier will also play a partial season again. Given that Takamoto Katsuta does not yet appear ready to challenge for first place in the championship, realistically the only Toyota driver who will be able to challenge for the title this year is Elfin Evans. Meanwhile, both Thierry Neuville and Ots Tanak will start for Hyundai at all stages of this season.
“It will be a difficult season,” Latvala predicts. “We have had three fantastic years, the last of which was by far the best. Now we have to think about the cards on the table and for the Hyundai team, if we compare ourselves, the cards are stronger. We have two world champions who will play half season. They have two riders who can fight for the title, we have one. Elfin is our rider who can fight for the title. Takamoto is still learning. The plan for next season was to win more podiums for him from “At the beginning it wasn’t thought that Takamoto could fight for the title in 2024. In this sense it will be more difficult for us. The objective is to try to defend the title in the constructors’ championship, but if we can also win the drivers’ championship it will be a huge advantage.”
Although Evans became the runner-up in three of the last four seasons, the “Toyota” unit does not put any pressure on the athlete and does not ask him for the title. Last year the British driver won in Croatia, Finland and also in the final race in Japan.
“We made it clear to Elfin that we are not actually thinking about the title in the drivers’ championship,” explains Latvala. “Let’s go to the track and do our job. He has to drive like he did in Rally Japan and then we’ll see where we are. I don’t want to put any pressure on Elfin. He has everything, he has the ability, but our car is fast and durable. However , to win a championship, you also need a bit of luck and all the pieces of the puzzle must fit together.”
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2024-01-12 15:58:00
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