Ott Tanak’s development driver role at Toyota will extend to driving a Rally2 car at the Rally di Roma Capitale European Rally Championship round next week.
The 2019 world champion will team up with long-time co-driver Martin Jarveoja to pilot a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car that will act as the event’s ‘zero car’, running ahead of a competitive ERC field.
Toyota has chosen to deploy Tanak at the event in an attempt to gather knowledge of the asphalt rally that is set to join the World Rally Championship next year as Italy’s round, replacing the current gravel contest in Sardinia.
“At Rally di Roma Capitale our GR Yaris Rally2 test car will serve as ‘zero car’ in the hands of Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja,” read a Toyota statement.
“Running non-competitively through the stages in front of the main field, they will help our team gather knowledge of the asphalt event as the region prepares to host WRC in 2027 subject to approval.”
Tanak had been on the sidelines this year after making the decision to step away from competing in the WRC this season.
While he has stayed away from the service park, the Estonian has remained linked to the championship by acting as a mentor for current Toyota driver and close friend Takamoto Katsuta.
Ott Tänak at 2025 Rally Italy
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
The event will act as the latest Toyota development outing for Tanak after the brand enlisted the services of the former Hyundai and M-Sport-Ford star to help carry out valuable testing and development work on the Japanese brand’s car built to the WRC’s new technical regulations next year.
Tanak has now been behind the wheel of Toyota’s 2027 challenger in tests both on asphalt and gravel, the most recent test taking place on gravel in Greece.
His return to Toyota as test driver, having previously won his only world title with the brand in 2019, has created plenty of speculation that he could be set for a return to the WRC next year, should there become a vacancy at the team.
However, Toyota has maintained that Tanak has only been employed in a development capacity to date. Tanak’s knowledge in developing cars is seen as extremely valuable, especially during a busy 2026 when driver availability is strained due to the current WRC calendar.
“Ott’s contribution as a driver comes a lot from driver availability,” said Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler earlier this year. “It’s such a hectic season this year with all the rallies we have and not only the rallies, but the time between each rally is not very evenly spaced.
“We’ve basically rallied every two weeks for the last six weeks and at the same time, we’ve driven three tests with the 2027 car.
“So there is no way that our drivers could do all of that work and on top of that, of course, Ott is a very experienced and very demanding driver who wants only the best possible products, so you definitely get some feedback from it.”
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