WRC Japan: Local Hero

When Toyota announced its comeback to the World Rally Championship for 2017, marking a return for a Japanese brand to the top category, it also set out to find a Japanese driver capable of competing at the highest level of the sport. To achieve this, it turned to an unusual source, taking Formula 3 driver Takamoto Katsuta to Finland to learn all about rallying under the guidance of four-time world champion Tommi Makinen.

Although his father is also a rally driver, Katsuta grew up dreaming of Formula 1 and was a rival and friend of World Endurance champion (and new McLaren development driver) Ryo Hirakawa as they climbed the single-seater ladder. But the rally world would sit up and took notice of Katsuta when, equipped with Pirelli's Sottozero studs, he won the WRC2 class at Rally Sweden in 2018 under pressure from the reigning champion and local expert Pontus Tidemand.

At the end of the following year, Katsuta stepped up to Toyota's Yaris World Rally Car, and achieved a landmark second-place finish on the 2021 Safari Rally Kenya: historically an important event for Toyota and Japan. He was back on the podium there a year later, and rounded out an impressively consistent 2022 campaign with third place at the returning Rally Japan on roads around his home city, Nagoya. In 2023, Katsuta proved he could mix it on the fastest rally of them all, taking another podium at Rally Finland on the gravel roads he now calls home.

Katsuta's success has inspired Toyota to go in search of more Japanese rallying talent, so don't be surprised if he's joined in years to come by more rising stars from the land of the rising sun.