WRC | Toyota: Pajari on Yaris Rally1 in Chile replacing Katsuta

With the 2024 world championship titles slipping away after the disastrous Acropolis Rally, Toyota Gazoo Racing is starting to look to the future and is doing so by re-engaging Sami Pajari.

The Finnish talent, who took his third win of the season at the Acropolis Rally in WRC2 last weekend, will have a double, great opportunity to showcase his skills behind the wheel of a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid in the next two rounds of the World Championship.

Pajari and his co-driver Enni Malkonen will be employed by Toyota both at the Rally Chile, scheduled for later this month, and at the Rally Central Europe, the penultimate round of the season and Pajari’s debut on asphalt at the wheel of a Rally1.

But that’s not all, because one of the most important factors for the Japanese team led by Jari-Matti Latvala is that Pajari’s presence will not be added to the three regulars at Rally Chile. Sami will in fact replace one of the two full-time drivers: Takamoto Katsuta.

Probably disappointed by the Japanese driver’s season and the recent mistake made by Katsuta at the Acropolis, Toyota has decided to replace him with Pajari after the Finn’s fifth place overall on his debut in the GR Yaris Rally1 last month in Finland.

Toyota has been keen to point out that Katsuta will return to his seat in the No. 18 Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 at the Rally of Central Europe in October, but his replacement in Chile feels like a punishment for not performing as the team had expected. His mistakes, along with those of all the other crews contracted to Toyota, are leading the Japanese team to lose the Manufacturers’ Championship after several years.

It will be very interesting, then, to watch Pajari’s first rally on asphalt with a Rally1. If the Finn is already familiar with dirt – also due to his natural talent and because it is the surface on which he has driven most often during his young career – asphalt represents a sort of test to understand how ready he is for the next season.

It is no secret that Toyota is following Pajari to understand whether to include him in the driver rotation for next season or not. So, if he were to perform well at the Central European Rally, then very interesting scenarios would open up for him for 2025, while waiting to understand if he will be able to make the WRC2 title his own this season.