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Mean new look for dominant WRC and WEC Toyota machinery

By Timothy Neal

Date posted: December 13, 2023

Toyota Gazoo Racing has unveiled a mean new matt-black look for their World Rally Championship and World Endurance Championship winning machines for 2024.

The GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid and GR010 LMH cars have dropped the all red, balck and white look for the new matt-black with its 2024 design concepts themed around “Speed”, “hate to lose” and “Prototype”.

The TGR team has taken out the last two WRC titles to own the new Rally1 era over Hyundai and Ford M-Sport as well as taking a championship one-two in 2023.

Toyota will enter 2024 with an all new matt-black look in the WRC and WEC

2023 was the third straight WRC manufacturing title for the Japanese based factory having won the last of the WRC machine era in 2021.

Kalle Rovanpera took out the last two titles as the youngest ever WRC champion, and the team took two podium sweeps in 2023, at Kenya and the finale in Japan in front of their home crowd.

That puts them on seven manufacturers titles, three behind Lancia and only one behind Citroen, with both of those makes having left top-flight rallying in 1993 and 2020 respectively.

Rovanpera won his second straight WRC title, giving Toyota three straight manufacturer crowns. Image: Red Bull Content Pool

The WEC teams also had a one-two over Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, Peugeot, Glickenhaus and Vanwall in the coming together of the new hypercar era.

Their #8 and #7 hypercars took out a third straight drivers title with the GR010 LMH machine having had a decent headstart on the incoming LMH and LMDh machines.

The only downside for the TGR team in 2023 was losing the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hour to the returning Ferrari, ending their run of five straight victories in the world’s greatest once around the clock race.

Toyota Gazoo Racing claimed it’s fifth straight drivers and Manufacturer titles in the WEC in 2023. Image: LAT

It was also their fifth straight drivers title in total, having won the last two seasons of the LMP1 era driving the Toyota TS050 Hybrid, whilst it was also their fifth straight manufacturers crown, with the last one before that back in 2014, with the brand holding the most titles since the FIA WEC replaced the World Sportcar Championship in 2010.

The 2024 WRC season opens with the 92nd Rallye Monte-Carlo on January 24-28, whilst the WEC season opens up the Qatar 1812 km on March 2.

AUTO ACTION’s latest issue #1875, is out now in its digital form downloadable right here, and available in all good newsagents and stockists near you, continuing on as Australia’s most trusted independent voice in motorsport.

If you can’t get a copy locally, you can also subscribe to the latest issue of Auto Action print or digital edition of the magazine here. For more of the latest motorsport news.

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