Kevin Struyf (Toyota Gazoo Racing Engineer): “Work calmly”

How does it feel to hear engines roaring again?

(playful) Much good! I had forgotten what it was like...the noise, the smell of gasoline, the work in the field. Finally being able to do what you love again has brought a smile to the face of many people.

How did the reunion with your crews go?

The tests in Finland are very special. The pilots generally have a smile all day long! After such a break without driving, they were very happy, especially as it was the first time they had used the Yaris on land on these roads. In the end, they are still just as impressive. They say they're going to have a hard time getting back into it, but after a round trip, they're already well into the rhythm!

They also appreciated seeing how much we accomplished and how we worked on the details they told us during the first three races. All six were able to see that we have real development topics coming up. We were able to work calmly and peacefully. This is often the case when we do a session that is not specific preparation for a rally.

In the images from your sessions, it is visible that you also worked on aerodynamics? (the Yaris had a vertical flap on each side on the wings)

Obviously! These are roads on which it is possible to see interesting things. We thought we would introduce them this year, but the tests fell further and further behind schedule. This actually requires a lot of kilometers and understanding, so it won't necessarily happen straight away.

From now on, you can only schedule one test day per driver before a rally. Will this not be penalizing if the WRC travels to Türkiye where the Yaris showed shortcomings?

If there had not been this crisis and these restrictions, Turkey would have been one of the sessions where we would certainly have put more energy. It is indeed difficult to learn so much on such specific, brittle, winding terrain and in extreme heat. However, we focused a large part of our studies and our work on quite a few subjects concerning Turkey to understand where our weaknesses were. We hope to come up with a little more defined ideas when we can ride in Turkey.

Even if the current WRCs seem successful, do you still find areas to improve them?

This is what makes this job interesting… but also dangerous! You have to manage to divide the work into two parts. There are subjects that directly bring performance. This relates to the search for mass, center of gravity, certain aero and engine issues, gear changes… All this provides direct overall performance. All the work we manage to do and improve is free performance that will make the car go faster.

Then there are all the surrounding subjects such as suspension or differential adjustments which are much more complicated and for which you must advance patiently, because they can save time in certain conditions and cost time in others. Having three new drivers required us to get to know them to find out what they want. During this break, we had time to think carefully and prepare for what comes next.

The cessation of development of the Yaris 2021 allows you to concentrate mainly on the current Yaris. This wasn't the original plan...

Even if we had planned staff and resources to work on next year's car, we would unfortunately have had to make a choice during the season. Without this, the requested pace would have been too fast. At the end of the year, we probably should have focused mainly on the 2021 model.

How was the end of the 2021 program received?

There is bound to be disappointment. This concerned a lot of people and real in-depth work had been done. It was an interesting car and we were almost amazed to see its level of performance already in testing. There was great potential… but that’s how it is. It was a very particular situation with the coronavirus crisis, the current car, that of 2021, but also the preparation for the 2022 season. At a given moment, wanting to do everything could have put everything in danger.