Tommi Mäkinen Dilantik Sebagai Penasihat Motorsport Untuk Toyota Motor

Tommi Mäkinen akan dilantik Motorsport Advisor kepada Toyota Motor Corporation dan akan mengambil tugas bermula 2021. Walaupun dia dan pasukannya di Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy telah membantu Toyota Gazoo Racing mencipta kejayaan dalam World Rally and World Endurance Championship, peranan baharu beliau akan berkembang di luar sukan permotoran. Sebenarnya, Toyota mengharapkan Mäkinen memberikan sumbangan langsung untuk “memajukan pembuatan kereta yang lebih baik”.

Perlantikan ini dibuat hanya beberapa hari selepas Toyota Gazoo Racing membawa kemenangan ketiga mereka di 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Kenyataan Media Toyota

Tommi Mäkinen will be appointed as a Motorsport Advisor to Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) from January 2021, with the aim of further advancing the manufacturing of ever-better cars.

Behind the appointment is Tommi Mäkinen’s impressive contribution to the supercharged re-ignition of Toyota’s World Rally operations from 2017. Tommi Mäkinen and his team of professionals at Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy helped Toyota to develop a highly competitive rally car and also built the team, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, to run it at the highest level of world rallying, the FIA World Rally Championship. Already in 2018, the second year after their return, Toyota earned the manufacturers’ world championship title, and in 2019 they won the drivers’ and co-drivers’ world championship titles.

With this expertise, Toyota is sure Tommi Mäkinen is capable of contributing in even wider fields of motorsports, such as the development of motorsports-bred GR vehicles, strategic planning of motorsport activities, and driver talent development. Appointing him as a motorsport advisor of Toyota Motor Corporation, the brand is looking forward to his advice on strategy formulation and organizational operations.

Consequently, the WRC project built by Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy―TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT and the design and development of World Rally Cars―will be managed directly by Toyota. From 2021 on the WRC operations will be run by TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe GmbH, the Toyota group company responsible for the core functions of Toyota motorsports in Europe. We plan to benefit from Tommi Mäkinen’s resolution, learning from his world-leading vehicle development know-how, cultivated at TMR, in order to link this to specific business development. We will also further strengthen our systems, including the acceleration of practical training of human resources. Still, TGR WRT continues its activities both in Finland and Estonia as it has been, using the existing human resources and some facilities originating from TMR.

Tommi Mäkinen, Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy