Tommi Makinen to lead Toyota's WRC return in 2017

Toyota confirms team lineup for 2017 WRC return with Finnish rally legend Tommi Mäkinen as team principal.

Four-time champion Tommi Mäkinen has been announced as the team principal for Toyota's return to the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2017, which was announced in January.

Mäkinen won consecutive titles between 1996 and 1999 driving for Mitsubishi before retiring in 2003, and was also involved with both Subaru and Nissan's WRC programs during his 17-year rally driving career.

More recently, Mäkinen has been involved in the development of Toyota's GR86X, a purpose-built all-wheel drive rally version of the 86 sports car driven by Toyota boss Akio Toyoda at the Coffs Harbour round of the WRC last year during a visit to Australia as part of a ten-week research and development program.

Toyota 86 rally car

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Akio Toyoda and Tommi Mäkinen talk driving styles

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Toyota global president Akio Toyoda addresses local employees

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The WRC program will be based out of Toyota Motorsport's technical centre in Colonge, Germany. The same facility also houses the Japanese brand's title-holding World Endurance Championship team and was also previously the base for their Formula One team.

Toyota will return to the WRC with a purpose-built Yaris which features a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine producing in excess of 223kW, some 160kW more power than the top-spec road-going Yaris ZR which sports an 80kW 1.5-litre engine.

The Yaris WRC racer has spent the first-half of the year running through a test program in Europe with several young drivers and WRC2 driver Eric Camilli behind the wheel.

Toyota WEC regular Stéphane Sarrazin and rally veteran Sebastian Lindholm will join the development program, with further testing planned across European WRC venues encompassing a number of different rally surfaces.