How Toyota transformed an F1 hopeful into a factory WRC driver

It’s difficult to envisage a bigger gulf in motorsport than that between single-seater racing and rallying, but this unlikely route is exactly the pathway Takamoto Katsuta has taken to become a fully fledged factory World Rally Championship driver.

Seven years ago Toyota set itself a challenge. Alongside plans for re-entry to the World Rally Championship it launched a young driver programme designed to unearth a future Japanese rally star to join them on their journey.

Fast forward to 2022 and the mission is complete as a certain Katsuta has transformed from a Formula 1 hopeful to become one of the WRC’s brightest talents. The rise has now culminated in promotion to Toyota’s factory team that has it sights set on defending its back-to-back WRC manufacturers crowns next year.

“I would say it is my biggest surprise of the season” Katsuta said of his promotion. “I have got more motivation for next year and the special opportunities do not come around so often so I have to thanks the team for this amazing opportunity.”

Whichever way you wish to dissect it, Katsuta’s “amazing opportunity” to re-invent himself as an elite rally driver is unconventional, and one defined by one of those sliding doors moments. It is not completely unexpected as rallying is in the Katsuta blood. His father Norihiko and grandfather were both bitten by the rallying bug, with the former, a successful rally driver in his own right, and still competing today. However, a 12-year-old Takamoto, born in Nagoya, now home of Rally Japan, appeared destined for a career in single seaters. Reaching F1 was the ultimate goal as Katsuta caught the eyes of Toyota at an early age competing in karting.

Katsuta would share kart circuits with the likes of future Formula 1 drivers Nyck de Vries, Alex Albon, and Stoffel Vandoorne, while forging his path on the single seater ladder. Helped by Toyota backing, Katsuta stepped up to Japan’s Formula Renault-based series - Formula Challenge Japan - in 2010, winning the title the next season. It was enough to retain Toyota’s support of this young prospect and pique the interest of the legendary TOM’S team, who signed the 19-year-old to its Japanese Formula 3 programme.

After a learning season in the national class in 2012, Katsuta kept his F1 dream alive the following year, claiming two victories among 10 podiums to finish second in the championship, beating the likes of future Super GT star Katsumasa Chiyo and Nobuharu Matsushita, a Honda F1 prospect who would go on to reach Formula 2. Katsuta couldn’t match that year’s champion Yuichi Nakayama, who blitzed the championship. That would be his best overall Japanese F3 finish as a near identical 2014 campaign was only good enough for fourth as Matsushita took the crown.

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Katsuta's 'past life' as a single-seater racer took him into Japanese F3, prior to his switch to rallying

Photo by: Yasushi Ishihara

It was at this point when Katsuta’s career trajectory changed completely. With Toyota exiting the world in Formula 1 after 2009 and no sign of a return, it was time for a re-think. Rumours circulating that Toyota was planning to re-enter the WRC was the key for a significant career change, one that would ultimately prove to be an inspired decision.

“When I was karting there was always Formula 1 and I was a Toyota young driver and I was watching Kamui Kobayashi and what Toyota were doing in F1, I wanted to be like that,” Katsuta tells Autosport.

“But then the Toyota Formula 1 project stopped and basically I lost my biggest target.

“Of course there was so many things I could do, I could move to Honda or move to Europe, but at the same time I was maybe thinking too much that I was a Toyota driver, so I wasn’t sure if it is good to move. I was thinking many things and then I heard about the World Rally Championship and Toyota’s plans, and it was quite crazy but great timing for me.

Katsuta’s “amazing opportunity” to re-invent himself as an elite rally driver is unconventional, and one defined by one of those sliding doors moments - a 12-year-old Takamoto had appeared destined for a career in single seaters

“To be honest in the beginning I told my father, who is a rally driver, that I wanted to go rallying, but he said ‘no you should stay racing as long as possible, it would be better for you', because he knows how hard it is in rally. I could not get the Japanese F3 championship and I had a pathway to be a driver in Japan, but I decided to move.

“I knew rally was even more difficult. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to go to rally was because of the World Rally Championship. It meant I could be a world level driver. I wanted to have some global success.

“Sometimes I think what could have happened if I carried on circuit racing but I am happy with the decision that I made.”

Those rumours a 21-year-old Katsuta heard had plenty of truth based to them as Toyota confirmed in 2015 that it would rejoin the WRC in 2017. However, more crucially for Katsuta the Japanese brand’s return would coincide with the launch of the Toyota WRC Challenge Programme, an initiative designed to train and future Japanese talent to the WRC.

Katsuta caught the eye of Tommi Makinen, who handed the Japanese driver a number of local and WRC2 outings

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

It was perfect timing. At this point, Katsuta had already experienced a taster of what rallying had to offer having tackled some events in the Japanese Rally Championship, piloting a Toyota GT86 in the JN-5 class. He impressed, winning his class in his second event. The results were enough to catch the attention of then Toyota WRC boss and four-time world champion Tommi Makinen.

Katsuta was selected alongside Hiroki Arai, the son of former factory Subaru WRC driver Toshi Arai, as the programme’s inaugural students. It was the start of a gruelling and character building journey as the pair left Japan to be placed outside of their comfort zone in Finland, the base of Toyota’s WRC team. It was here where Katsuta would transform from single-seater racer into a rally driver learning his skills from the likes of four-time WRC runner-up Mikko Hirvonen, who was among the programme’s instructors.

It wasn’t a move without challenges. Katsuta had never driven on gravel before, a key skill required for any successful rally driver. On top of this, he was plonked on the other side of the world knowing very little Finnish or English while trying to assimilate into a completely different culture. The language barrier was made perhaps even tougher given the necessity to make and understand pacenotes in English or Finnish to compete in rallies.

“In the beginning it was very hard to be honest,” Katsuta adds.

“I didn’t speak English at all and there was no one to translate. Everything was new so it was very, very hard. Luckily I had very good people look after me at the team and everyone was supporting me. They tried to teach me English and we had fun together which really helped my language skills and my motivation.

“I was very disappointed because I wasn’t very good at driving on gravel and the communication wasn’t going so well. But nobody at the team gave up in trying to help me and that is why I kept my motivation.

“There are so many things different [compared to circuit racing]. I knew it would be very difficult and tough- and honestly it was even more difficult than I expected. For example, there is the pacenotes and then the driving. You never get the same corner as all the stages are different and the conditions are always changing. It’s is really hard to understand where is the limit. It was so hard.

After two top-level WRC outings in 2019, Katsuta did five of the seven rounds in 2020 - including the Rally Monza finale

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“Tommi was giving me a lot of mental advice and then there was Mikko Hirvonen and he was giving me more advice on the driving. It was a very good situation and the team was excellent, I could trust them 100%.”

Absorbing the information like a sponge, Katsuta quickly emerged as a future talent. Initially competing in local rallies driving a Subaru Impreza run by Tommi Makinen Racing, before stepping up to to a more powerful Rally2 specification Ford Fiesta mid 2016. It wasn’t all plain sailing as Katsuta would learn the brutal life of a rally driver. But the signs of progress were evident thanks to a third in the WRC2 class in Sardinia in 2017. The following season a maiden class win arrived on the snow of Sweden, beating reigning champion Pontus Tidemand, to finish 11th overall after winning 10 of 19 stages.

The standout Sweden performance earned Katsuta selection over Arai to the next stage of the programme, moving a step closer to the big time. A second WRC2 win in Chile in 2019 was seemingly enough for Toyota to hand over the keys to a Yaris WRC car for a debut at Rally Germany, where Katsuta would score a championship point on his full WRC debut.

Toyota elected to run Katsuta in a fourth development Yaris WRC from 2020. Despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cutting the calendar to seven events, Katsuta was entered into five rounds, scoring a best of seventh on the notoriously difficult icy roads of Monte Carlo.

"I had very good people look after me at the team and everyone was supporting me. I wasn’t very good at driving on gravel and the communication wasn’t going so well. But nobody at the team gave up in trying to help me" Takamoto Katsuta

It was the following season where Katsuta's transformation seemed complete. Not only was his smiley and kind persona earning him countless friends in the service park, his speed and consistency was turning heads. Katsuta and co-driver Daniel Barritt were the only pair to finish the first six events inside the top six. The run was completed by a standout run to challenge for victory in the gruelling Safari Rally Kenya, before settling for second behind would be eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier. It was result that ended a 27-year wait for a Japanese driver on the WRC podium. But crucially, it was validation for Toyota’s project and a show of faith in its initiative, and a confidence booster for Katsuta.

“I had very mixed feeling in my mind because it was very close to a victory,” Katsuta added. “I was not good enough but I must be happy with that result. I could have done some things better like tyre management, but I was still in the victory fight.

“I was happy but I had mixed feelings as I am a driver who always wants to win. Akio [Toyoda, Toyota CEO] sent me a message saying congratulations, but at the same time he said he expected that I could do something more in the future, and that was very good to hear because my feeling and his feeling was the same. That gives me much more motivation. Last year I promised him that one day I will bring you the top podium finish in the WRC.”

Katsuta took his first WRC podium at Kenya in 2021 - and returned to the rostrum there in 2022

Photo by: Toyota Racing

That maiden victory remains elusive, although Katsuta reached another level this year to further outline that it is possible turn a single-seater racer into a top level rally driver. After a rough end to 2021, this year resulted in the 29-year-old being the championship’s most consistent driver finishing 12 of the 13 rallies in the points. Two thirds, one in Kenya and a well received home triumph in the Japan season finale sealed promotion to the third factory car for 2023 for selected events when Ogier is absent.

The humble Katsuta was surprised by the promotion but in all truth he shouldn’t have been, as his clear talent made the decision for current Toyota WRC boss Jari-Matti Latvala a no brainer.

“It’s very nice to welcome Takamoto into our main line-up to share a car with Sebastien while also still gaining the experience of a full season,” said Latvala. “We believe the time is right for him to make this step. In 2022 he was the WRC’s most consistent scorer so we are confident he can bring good points for the team.”

While Katsuta has already navigated many twists and turns in his career, perhaps the biggest one lies ahead now he has reached the ultimate goal set out for him by Toyota in 2015.

“This is very important for Japan. I believe it has been a long time with no Japanese drivers in the main team in WRC history so this is a big challenge,” he says.

“I can see there will be a lot of challenges and pressure so I really need to perform well and better than this year. Let’s say I’m confident I can prove that I should be part of the main team next year.”

Katsuta completed 2022 with a podium in Japan - but can he finally claim a victory in '23?

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński