Why WRC 2027 car project is the “most difficult” Toyota has faced

Developing a World Rally Championship car for the new 2027 technical regulations is the “most difficult” new car build Toyota has faced yet, according to technical director Tom Fowler. 

The WRC is set to introduce a new ruleset for next year designed to be more affordable and flexible in a bid to attract not only manufacturers but tuners to the series.

Under the new FIA framework, cars will be built to a €345,000 cost cap and will be largely based around the current Rally2 cars. They will feature a suspension set out in a double wishbone configuration, with engines, transmission, braking and steering systems derived from current Rally2 specifications.

While tuners Project Rally One and RMC Motorsport are known to be working on projects, Toyota is the only mainstream automotive manufacturer to date that has committed to building a car to the new technical regulations, and has been busily developing its 2027 prototype since the end of last year.

This week the car was seen testing on gravel in Finland with test driver and 2019 world champion Ott Tanak and current Toyota full-time WRC star Sami Pajari behind the wheel.

Toyota is reaching a critical phase in the car’s development with the first submissions already being made to the FIA. According to Fowler, "there's only really a couple more months where the spec is open before we have to start freezing things to meet the homologation and the production deadlines.”

Ott Tänak, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport

Reflecting on the development process so far, Toyota’s long-time WRC technical director says a number of factors have made this new WRC car project the most difficult he has tackled so far.

“The way to look at it is that your expectation is that the car needs to be driven by drivers like Sebastien Ogier. You need to want Sebastien Ogier to get in and drive it, but at the same time it has to meet the cost cap, and you have to be able to sell it to a customer,” Fowler explained ahead of this week’s test to Autosport.

“In Rally1 currently, of course you don't take any consideration about the latter of those things, and you just make sure that your crews are all happy. And in Rally2, when we've developed that car [GR Yaris Rally2] before, we've made sure that we meet the cost criteria and as wide a range of possible customers are happy with the car and the specification. So to merge those two things together, it adds a lot more work into trying to establish the specification and make all the decisions.

“At the moment, we're in a kind of critical phase to come up with all the answers and like any new car, there's always problems. The number of different specifications that we need to decide on for the World Rally Championship is so big that at the moment, we are still at the point of trying to fill in all of the missing points, and say we've got a car that's good enough for tarmac, gravel and snow. At some point you always have to draw a line and say, the base car is now good enough because, it has to be because the time's run out.”

Fowler admitted from a technical standpoint the WRC27 car isn’t “that complicated”, but highlighted that the move to a double wishbone suspension is a significant challenge.  

"If you look at how the regulation is formulated,” he said. “You would think that you could basically go to our stores and just order the parts and build it because it's pretty much like a Rally1 chassis, a prototype bodywork, meaning similar to the Rally1 in construction, it's a Rally2 engine, it's a Rally2 transmission. The suspension system is the bit where there's the most new topic around double wishbone as opposed to MacPherson strut. 

"Of course, in reality it doesn't work like that. So everything has to be looked at from new. So probably the biggest technical challenge has been the double wishbone suspension system. Actually we learned a lot in our research and development that we did on this topic. What we come to with double wishbone suspension is that it's very easy to have a good MacPherson strut suspension system, but it's quite difficult to have a very good one. But with a double wishbone, if you want to make a bad one, it's quite easy.”

Champion Ott Tänak, Toyota Gazoo Racing

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Toyota welcomes Tanak’s testing feedback 

Toyota’s task to develop an all-new car in time for next year has been helped by the arrival of Tanak. The Estonian opted to call time on his full-time WRC career at the end of last season, but is still regarded as one of rallying’s fastest and most complete drivers.

Tanak’s knowledge in developing cars is seen as extremely valuable, especially during a busy 2026 when driver availability is strained due to the current WRC calendar. Tanak has already tested the car on asphalt in Croatia and has enjoyed outings on gravel in Spain last month and now Finland this week.

“Ott’s contribution as a driver comes a lot from driver availability. It's such a hectic season this year with all the rallies we have and not only the rallies, but the time between each rally is not very evenly spaced. We've basically rallied every two weeks for the last six weeks and at the same time, we've driven three tests with the 2027 car,” added Fowler.

“So there is no way that our drivers could do all of that work. And on top of that, of course, Ott is a very experienced and very demanding driver who wants only the best possible products, so you definitely get some feedback from it.

“It basically comes down to the fact if you want to make your life easy or you want to make your life good. If you want an easy life, then you don't let him anywhere near it. If you want a good car, then you have to let him see what it's like. He's a very demanding guy. He has very high expectations and doesn't take any BS on any topic.

“I don't know if it's his more relaxed approach to his new retirement status or if he's genuinely in a better place than you would normally be, but certainly he's been giving us some good constructive feedback. Of course, there are many elements he's not happy. Some elements he’s more happy than he thought he would be, which means it's okay. So I think it is quite okay.”