February 8, 2016 – Toyota Motorsport is returning to the World Rally Championship in 2017, and the Japanese team could employ two former world champions to stage its comeback.
In an interview with Autosport, Toyota WRC’s boss Tommi Makinen revealed that he’s held talks with 2003 world rally champion Petter Solberg, claiming that there aren’t so many drivers for us to choose from, with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and M-Sport driver Mads Ostberg the only free agents next year.
“We discussed different plans with Petter, we know Petter is a world champion and a fast driver. He is running his rallycross team and doing the championship again, but maybe something is possible.” said Makinen.
Makinen also said that he is willing to open discussions with nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.
“I haven’t seen or spoken with Sebastien yet. There are a lot of rumours around, but so far I haven’t done anything. If Sebastien would be interested to do something then of course I want to talk to him.”
