Toyota confirms Yaris hot hatch

Toyota has simultaneously revealed its 2017 World Rally Championship racer and confirmed it will re-enter the hot hatch market with a WRC-inspired, road-going Yaris – but it won't be sold in Australia.

Both the Yaris WRC and a sketch of the first Yaris hot hatch were revealed in Helsinki overnight, but Toyota Australia told motoring.com.au that it won't release the Japanese giant's first direct rival for the Ford Fiesta ST, Peugeot 208 GTi, Renault Clio RS200 and Volkswagen Polo GTI.

"The performance-focused Yaris announced overnight hints at an exciting vehicle and the first production-based offshoot related to Toyota’s return to the World Rally Championship," said Toyota Australia product public relations manager, Steve Coughlan.

"Whilst we would love to have a hot hatch in our local line-up at some future point, we have no plans to introduce this product to the Australian range."

The first Yaris hot hatch was announced in a two-sentence press release from Toyota Motor Europe titled 'Toyota announced high-performance Yaris' and accompanied by this sketch.

"At the same time as Toyota has taken the wraps off the Yaris WRC in Helsinki today, the company has announced its return to the hot hatch market," said the company.

"It will use experience gained from its full-blooded return to the World Rally Championship to develop and improve its road car technology and expand the Yaris range with a new performance-focused model."

The official image shows Toyota's new hot hatch – which was first rumoured in March 2015 — will be based on the Yaris three-door that is no longer sold in Australia, where the Yaris WRC will appear at the 13th and final round of the 2017 WRC on the NSW Coffs Coast over November 16-19.

Next year's WRC title chase opens in a little over a month at the Monte Carlo Rally over January 19-22, when Toyota will make its WRC return for the first time since 1999.

Leading the two-car Toyota WRC assault will be Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala and Juho Hänninen, while a third Finn — Esapekka Lappi, who won the WRC2 Championship this year – has now also been named as test driver.

Lead driver Latvala — a three-time runner-up in the WRC alongside co-driver Miikka Anttila, with 169 starts and 16 WRC victories under his belt – will lead Toyota Gazoo Racing's all-Finnish effort, including three Finnish drivers, a Finnish team principal in four-times WRC champion Tommi Mäkinen and an HQ near Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland.

Toyota left the WRC at the end of 1999 after achieving three manufacturers’ championships and four drivers’ titles between Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol.

Toyota's 2017 Yaris WRC will battle with the M-Sport Fiestas of French WRC legend Sebastien Ogier and Estonian Ott Tänak, who were confirmed as Ford drivers yesterday, plus the Hyundai i20s of Belgian Thierry Neuville, Kiwi Hayden Paddon and Spaniard Dani Sordo, and the Citroen C3s of Brits Kris Meeke and Craig Breen and Frenchman Stéphane Lefebvre.

Citroën will unveil its C3 model in team livery next Wednesday, but the future of Ogier's VW teammate Andreas Mikkelsen, who won the 2016 Rally Australia last month, remains unknown – just like former M-Sport drivers Mads Østberg, Eric Camilli and Elfyn Evans.

While Toyota confirmed its WRC return after 17 years in January 2015, Volkswagen announced its departure from WRC competition in November after Ogier claimed four successive WRC drivers' titles and four consecutive manufacturers' titles for the German car-maker since it entered the sport in 2013.

No details have been announced about the Yaris hot hatch, but it's likely to be powered by a 1.6-litre engine to reflect the race engine in the Toyota WRC car, which will benefit from relaxed 2017 technical rules that allow much more power, less weight, wider wheel tracks, better aerodynamics and an active centre differential for the all-wheel-drive transmissions, making them the fastest in the WRC’s history.

With an FIA-approved 36mm air restrictor, the Yaris WRC's 1600cc turbo-petrol four-cylinder develops more than 279kW and 425Nm, and drives all four wheels via a six-speed hydraulic transmission. It weighs 1190kg and has a 201km/h top speed, but acceleration is classified.

Apart from Michelin, DMG Mori and Panasonic, the Toyota WRC team will benefit from Microsoft, which will provide a data analysis platform, as well as a cloud-based information-sharing system to allow team members to share content more efficiently.

"Today, it is my great pleasure to present the car to compete in WRC, with our team and partners," said the chairman of Toyota and its WRC team, Akio Toyoda, after going for a spin in the Yaris WRC with team boss Makinen.

"I would like to express my gratitude to, and respect for, those fans who waited 17 years for this day and also all the rally organisers, participants and automakers who have safeguarded and furthered the sport of rally during our absence. Thanks to all of you, we're back here.

"Both people and cars are trained and strengthened when they are exposed to conditions that exceed the imagination during competition. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing hates to lose, and of course we do not want to lose in WRC. The other day, I had a chance to drive Yaris WRC with Tommi and could share a feeling of confidence in our ability to compete with this car."