The pressure is certainly on Katsuta in this penultimate round of the season, as it has been a challenging year for him. As a result, Toyota benched Katsuta for the previous Rally Chile. The team didn’t officially call it a benching, but rather a chance for Katsuta to recharge ahead of the season’s final stages.
This season, Katsuta has only reached the podium once, securing second place in Kenya in March. Expectations were much higher, and five retirements speak volumes about how difficult the season has been for him.
Katsuta says he’s received a lot of support from his teammates and from Toyota’s team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, as well as coach Juho Hänninen. Another key figure in Katsuta’s corner is Heikki Huovinen, who is well-known for his past role as the fitness coach for F1 star Sebastian Vettel. Although Huovinen primarily handles Katsuta’s physical training, he also provides valuable emotional support.
Huovinen’s role is to coach other Toyota drivers as well, but he has spent significant time with Katsuta. Back in September, RallyJournal.com asked Katsuta after the Rally Greece if he had a mental coach, as many top drivers rely on one.
“I have many mental coaches. Thankfully, I have a very good team-mates, Seb(Sebastien Ogier), Elfyn (Evans), and Kalle (Rovanperä). We are talking quite a lot together. Also Jari-Matti(Latvala) is always next to me and Juho Hänninen as well,” Katsuta explained at the time.
“With Heikki, I’m speaking a lot more like general life and how sports has been. I mean, how athlete has to be mentally prepared for the rallies. About driving side I speak more with Jari-Matti, Juho and all the drivers.”
Katsuta has a strong support team around him to help turn things around in the final stages of the season, after which he can start looking ahead to 2025.
“Obviously Seb also gave me a lot of very useful advices. But so far by my mistakes, we couldn’t achieve the result we wanted. I definitely need to do a better job myself,” Katsuta concludes.
