What Toyota's latest step towards motorsport's future looks like

There’s no hiding from the fact that motorsport has to change and develop new methods of propulsion to continue as the world faces the reality of trying to achieve a carbon-neutral future. At a time when there is plenty of focus on the World Rally Championship looking forward as it strives to align with current automotive trends, Toyota has showcased a potential solution. At Rally Finland it unveiled its hydrogen-powered GR Yaris Rally2 car, which caused quite the stir when it hit the stages.

“I’m such a believer in the future of the car,” says former Top Gear and The Grand Tour presenter Richard Hammond after clambering out of the passenger seat alongside four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen, who has been showcasing Toyota’s latest revolutionary offering. “They are the most important things we have ever made and it doesn’t have to be dull and dreary, anonymous, autonomous or grey. We are sold that myth.

“The internal combustion engine never hurt anything; it is the most important thing we have. We’re not going to let it go. There are thousands of people here [at Rally Finland] watching them. These things matter, they move us physically and they move us emotionally. The WRC has a huge role to play in celebrating that.”

Toyota has already invested plenty of resources into hydrogen as a zero-CO2 fuel source. The Japanese marque launched its first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell production car – the Toyota Mirai – in 2014. In 2021 it developed its first hydrogen-powered endurance racing car (Toyota GR Corolla), which has competed in Japan’s Super Taikyu Series and Fuji 24 Hours. And in June this year it launched its GR LH2 Racing Concept hydrogen-powered prototype as the next step towards racing with the alternative fuel at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Now the technology is moving into rallying via the GR Yaris Rally2 H2 concept. The carmaker first dabbled with such technology in the discipline in 2022 when it demonstrated a hydrogen-powered road-going Yaris at Ypres Rally Belgium, with Kankkunen, Jari-Matti Latvala and current Toyota Motor Corporation chairman Akio Toyoda all spending time at the wheel.

Three years on, Toyota has used the lessons learned from that project to produce a version of its successful GR Yaris Rally2 car powered by compressed hydrogen. It is the result of collaboration between Toyota’s WRC team based in Finland and the Japan headquarters over the past 12 months.

Richard Hammond helped showcase Toyota's hydrogen-powered GR Yaris Rally2 car at Rally Finland last month

Photo by: Toyota

The car is fundamentally identical to the GR Yaris Rally2 that competes regularly on the WRC stages, albeit with a revised engine, minus an anti-lag system. The base powerplant has been adapted to work using hydrogen featuring specially developed lubricants. It produces 260-280bhp with a 400km (250-mile) target range. The result is a car that emits only water as its byproduct, and boasts a similar performance to that of its petrol-powered sibling, while maintaining the noise that motorsport fans crave.

“It was very nice [to drive],” says Kankkunen, who completed runs of the Harju stage during Rally Finland on Thursday and Friday night. “It was good and it brought back old memories. Somebody told me I have been fastest seven times on the Harju stage and I was fastest again but in the hydrogen class. It is a brand-new car and it handles very well, there is no question about that. There is a good future ahead.”

Predicting the future of powertrains appears to be an incredibly difficult question to answer, one that has left the automotive industry in limbo while technologies and circumstances continue to develop at a rapid rate. This uncertainty is mirrored in the motorsport sphere, which is often the testbed for the automotive advances of the future.

"The bad guy is not the ICE itself but the carbon-producing ICEs are the bad guys. If hydrogen becomes more readily available, obviously those people working with the normal combustion engine will be able to transfer their job within the same sphere" Tomoya Takahashi

Hybrid power has been embraced by the World Endurance Championship, and now IndyCar is the latest to join that movement, just as the World Rally Championship and British Touring Car Championship move away from this technology. Full electric power has been successfully showcased and developed by Formula E, although the technology is not yet at a point to be touted as the overriding answer for all motorsport, and also has its own environmental drawbacks.

The WRC has pioneered the use of 100% sustainable fuel since 2022, and now Formula 1 is about to move in that direction. There is also ongoing development in fully synthetic hydrocarbon fuels, which also appears promising, albeit in the early stages of development when it comes to motorsport. And then there is hydrogen power, which produces near-zero emissions from current internal combustion engines, with Toyota seemingly championing its cause.

“In order to make motorsport sustainable, all sorts of choices in powertrains should be available,” says Toyota Gazoo Racing Company president Tomoya Takahashi. “By not only selecting one set of powertrains – but to have various options – they will focus on the overall sustainability of motorsport. The big boss likes the sound and smell of cars, as you know. In the future in Europe, ICE [internal combustion engine] will be banned at some point probably, but there are many people all over the world who are involved in working with the ICE.

Toyota has pushed on with his hydrogen-powered developments to give it options for motorsport's future

Photo by: Toyota

“The bad guy is not the ICE itself but the carbon-producing ICEs are the bad guys. If hydrogen becomes more readily available, obviously those people working with the normal combustion engine will be able to transfer their job within the same sphere. Imagine if motorsport will only be limited to battery EVs. For example, if you can think about an endurance race where the cars will come back after half an hour and charge their battery for an hour and start again, this is not really thinkable in terms of motorsport.

“The future is very difficult to predict, but when we see this ICE ban at some point, even in motorsport it will not be possible to use those ICEs. Toyota is preparing as many options as possible in view of this kind of ban.”

It is fair to say that the automotive sphere is still in its infancy from an infrastructure point of view when it comes to producing the compressed hydrogen power. But there is scope for growth.

Toyota admits that there is still plenty to learn from the power source when applying it to motorsport, although it has made strides since its racing Corolla made its debut in 2021. Its belief in the power source as one of several pathways for the future is strong, backed up by its decision in February to expand its hydrogen engine facility at its motorsport base in Cologne.

“I feel and see in Germany that there are so many hydrogen fuel cell buses already running and that means there are stations, so the country is becoming more and more
prepared; change is happening,” reckons Norio Aoki, Toyota’s Senior General Manager – Power Unit Department. “In Cologne we have commissioned two hydrogen internal combustion dynos and another one is in preparation. We are moving on to take this on as one of the options for the future.

“I think Toyota is not only investing in hydrogen, it is one of the ways. Toyota’s philosophy is to go multiple paths and make these technologies available and the customer can choose.”

Extreme H is set to launch later this year as an all-Hydrogen series

Photo by: Jack Hall / PA Media Assignments

In the motorsport world it’s not only Toyota that is investing in hydrogen. This year the first off-road hydrogen-powered series – Extreme H – is gearing up to make its launch onto the scene.

Hydrogen’s future in the WRC will, however, depend on when alternative powertrains and fuel sources become eligible for use in rallying’s top tier. The FIA has made it clear that its new 10-year plan for its technical regulations that will debut in 2027 will begin with a focus on internal combustion engines powered by the current 100% sustainable fuel. But it has stated that there is a desire to open up these regulations to allow varying powertrains and methods of propulsion in the future, although a date is yet to be determined.

Toyota has made it clear that it is not putting all its eggs in the hydrogen basket and is working on developing various powertrains. The multi-million-dollar question after this successful demonstration at Rally Finland is how long will it take for hydrogen to become mainstream in motorsport?

“Hydrogen combustion is at the beginning. We are now trying to develop as quickly as possible as one of the multiple ways and approaches we have at Toyota” Norio Aoki

“I honestly don’t know, but I hope it will come earlier than we think and there is a lot of development to make this happen,” Aoki reckons. “By running under the rally conditions we are learning a lot. Rally is already giving us a challenge to tackle the next step of development and it is an interesting learning step.

“Hydrogen combustion is at the beginning. We are now trying to develop as quickly as possible as one of the multiple ways and approaches we have at Toyota.”

When the FIA sets a date to broaden the use of different powertrains in the WRC, hydrogen may just be an option on the table to achieve carbon-neutral motorsport.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the October 2025 issue and subscribe today.

Is this what the long-term future looks like for the WRC?

Photo by: Toyota