Latvala has served this season as Toyota’s part-time team principal. At the beginning of the year, he carried out his duties as usual at the Monte Carlo and Sweden rounds of the WRC, but since then he has shifted focus to driving in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship.
One of Latvala’s big personal dreams has been to compete at Rally Finland once more. It would be a special occasion for him: it will be his 20th start in the event, and earlier this year he celebrated his 40th birthday.
Toyota’s assistant team principal Juha Kankkunen confirmed during last weekend’s Acropolis Rally in Greece that Latvala will be competing as a driver at Rally Finland.
“I will be in Estonia and Finland as well (handling team principal duties), because Jari-Matti is competing in Finland himself. During Rally Estonia he will be somewhere else,” Kankkunen explained.
A few weeks ago, Latvala told RallyJournal.com that his entry was “95 percent certain.” He intends to fight for a strong result in his home rally, but not in the top class.
“It would be the Rally2 car again, the same one we used last year. That’s enough for me at this point. I know that if I drove a Rally1 car, I’d need a lot of testing to be able to aim for a proper result,” Latvala said.
Last year, Latvala competed in Finland with a Toyota Rally2 car and finished second in the WRC2 category behind Oliver Solberg. In 2023, he drove a Rally1-spec Toyota and finished fifth overall.
The next round of the WRC season takes place in Estonia in two weeks. Latvala will skip the event in his team boss role, as he will be representing Toyota at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England that same weekend.
Rally Finland is scheduled for the turn of July and August. The official entry list will be published on Friday.
