Toyota Gazoo Racing has selected five young drivers for the final stage of its development programme. Of the chosen drivers, four are Japanese and one comes from New Zealand.
The aim of the programme is to find and nurture new talented drivers to the world’s top level – in practice, the World Rally Championship. The preliminary selections were held from 16–19 September, and based on them, five drivers advanced to the final, where they will compete for the final places in Finland in December.
This year’s selection event attracted the maximum number of applicants – one hundred – from which the five best were filtered through the qualifying rounds.
The selected drivers were last year’s finalist Masato Inaba, Yoshiaki Yonebayashi, New Zealander Zeal Jones, drifting driver Daiya Minowa, and Takeshi Takaoka. Takaoka has no experience in rallying so far, but that has proven not to be an obstacle. After all, Toyota’s programme already includes Kanta Yanaguida, who also had no prior rally experience but was ultimately chosen.
Perhaps the most intriguing name in the group is 16-year-old Daiya Minowa, known from the drifting scene. The promising driver has already had the chance to race in drifting against Kalle Rovanperä – just as Kanta had earlier – and at the same time he was bitten by the rally bug. Minowa has received support from Takamoto Katsuta’s TK Motorsport. Katsuta himself once made it into the World Rally Championship precisely through Toyota’s development programme.
“When I met Takamoto Katsuta and Kalle Rovanperä, I became interested in rallying. I want to follow in their footsteps,” said Minowa.
The five selected drivers will now travel to Finland in December, where a practical test on snow and ice is planned. After the tests in Finland, the final decision will then be made as to which drivers will be chosen for the development programme.
According to the programme’s head coach, Mikko Hirvonen, Toyota once again had a wide range of options to choose from this year.
“There was again a lot of talent involved, and the competition for places in the final was tough. The standard was very high. To prevent previous experience from giving too much of an advantage, this year we changed both the cars and the location, which made the selection a new challenge for everyone. In the second stage, we saw both familiar names and new talents. The course contained many difficult sections, where not only speed was measured, but also the ability to adapt quickly to changing conditions. In the end, five drivers performed best overall and earned their place in the Finnish final. I am looking forward to seeing how they develop in the next stage,” Hirvonen commented.
