What to expect from Toyota Rovanperä on his full-time WRC return

Toyota expects Calle Rovanperä to fight for the World Rally Championship title on his full-time return this year as the Finn stepped up his Monte Carlo preparations this week.

The two-time world champions will compete in a full 14-round season this year after running a partial campaign last year, which still yielded four wins and helped Toyota clinch the manufacturers’ crown for the fourth time in a row.

Rovanperä was behind the wheel of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 car earlier this week as the reigning world champion team began its Monte Carlo Rally (23-26 January) pre-event testing. The race saw Rovanperä tackle snow and ice-covered French roads as he made valuable gains driving the new 2025 hybrid-less car running on Hankook tyres.

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Toyota Team Principal zari-matti latvala I have full hope that Rovanperä will be fully committed and fight for his third world title this year. He also believes that Rovanperä’s circuit racing exploits last year, which will continue with his endurance racing debut at the Dubai 24 Hours this weekend, can enhance his skills on asphalt rallies.

“I hope he fights for the title, he will definitely be fast,” Latvala said.

“When he comes he wants to win but let’s see. We also know that Cale is experimenting in 2024 and I’m not sure he will stay in rallying for many years, but when he does he will be fully committed.

“Doing what he did (in 2024) can keep his momentum going and we saw it with Sébastien Loeb when he was doing all kinds of things (in motorsport) and then he came to Monte Carlo in 2022 and won . Maybe he can bring something for clean tarmac driving.”

Speaking ahead of the test, Rovanperä hopes his full-time WRC return will spur him to “work harder” again, but his focus is on snatching the title from Hyundai. Thierry Neuville,

“Of course, I will try to work hard and have good motivation for 2024 to 2025,” Rovanperä told Autosport.

“The only goal is to try and win again and fight for a championship, so definitely I need to work hard and come back.”

After testing, he said: “The Monte is always an extremely difficult start and this year we have new tires for everyone and I think it’s going to be a really big thing because everyone needs a Will have to learn a new tyre.

“But obviously Thierry has to be one of the top guys to beat after last year and everyone is behind him now. “We’re behind him and we’ll see how it goes.”