At Toyota Spain headquarters in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain, Toyota Spain announced its racing plans for 2024.  The competition range carries Toyota's GR DNA seal, and this year TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Spain team will continue in the Iberian Cup and will expand its participation in rallies, competing in the Spanish Rally Superchampionship (S-CER) and, after over 20 years, will return to the tracks in the GR Cup Spain single-brand cup, with the GR86 model.

The event was held at the headquarters of Toyota Spain and brought together Miguel Carsi, President and CEO of Toyota Spain, Manuel Aviñó, President of the Royal Spanish Automobile Federation and Teo Martín, CEO of Motor & Sport Institute (MSi). The three were joined by Alejandro Cachón and his co-driver Borja Rozada, who will be at the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally2 in the S-CER. Both shared their feelings about the season ahead. Isidre Esteve and his co-driver Txema Villalobos were also present, and they spoke about their experience in the past 2024 Dakar in Saudi Arabia and their plans for this year with their Toyota Hilux T1+.

In rallying, this 2024 season Toyota Spain will be present in the S-CER with the GR Yaris Rally2, thanks to the structure of Teo Martín Motorsport. The car will be driven by the young but seasoned Asturian, Alejandro Cachón, with Borja Rozada as his co-driver. Both have participated in several rounds of previous editions of the World Rally Championship and will seek to secure Toyota Spain's first national title.

The Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, which made its debut at Rallye Monte Carlo, has already shown great potential at the Rally Sweden, where it finished second, third, fourth and fifth in its category, scoring several scratches, one of them by Spaniard Jan Solans who is competing in WRC2 within Teo Martin's structure.

The S-CER starts next week at the Lorca Rally, the first of the nine events of the season. This event is considered a European reference, and this year will feature important new developments and team reinforcements and is expected to be one of the most competitive and exciting seasons in history.

On the other hand, Toyota Spain, again hand in hand with MSi, takes a step further in its commitment to the competition in what will be another of the great novelties of 2024 in the Spanish circuits: the GR Cup Spain. This new cup will be contested with the successful Toyota GR86, of which 20 units have been manufactured and are now on sale and soon available to drivers.

This single-brand cup will be framed within the Racing Weekend, which in 2023 enjoyed large audiences in all broadcasting channels. The calendar includes five weekends distributed along several circuits of the Spanish geography, in which two races of the GR Cup Spain will be held, which will score independently. More than € 120,000 in prizes and the chance for the winner to get into a TCR in one of the events in the 2025 season, make it the most attractive circuit cup at the moment.

And of course, the successful TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Iberian Cup will continue, facing its third season this year. Organized by Toyota Spain, Toyota Caetano Portugal and MSi, in this 2024 has four unprecedented events, the first of which was held last weekend at the Rally of Fafe (Portugal). Its main novelty is the final prize for the winner, which is added to the over €300,000 in cash: the chance to participate in a 2025 rally at the wheel of a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

In both rallies and circuits, Toyota Spain relies on the structure of Motor & Sport Institute, led by Teo Martín, as a partner in charge of the development, tuning and manufacture of the Toyota GR Yaris RZ of the Iberian Cup rally and the GR86 of the GR Cup Spain. 

The support offered by Toyota Spain to Isidre Esteve in his sporting challenge in the World Rally-raid Championship (W2RC) must be added to these competitions. The driver from Lleida, along with his co-driver, Txema Villalobos, will race again this year with his Toyota Hilux T1+ and, once again, will take part in the toughest event in the world of motorsport: the 2025 Dakar Rally. And as a novelty, Isidre will compete in the Rally raid in Portugal for the first time from April 2 to 7, and in the Morocco Rally from 5 to 11 October, his Hilux T1+ will debut the twin-turbo V6 engine that is currently being used by the official TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team.

Since Isidre has been competing in a car for the first time, he has been able to use the brake as an additional element of his driving equipment to be faster and fight against the best in the last Dakar Rally in January 2024 with the same weapons, without his disability being a disadvantage.

Isidre Esteve has competed in 19 editions of the Dakar, 10 on a motorcycle and, after the spinal cord injury he suffered in 2007, another 9 editions in a car. On two wheels, the driver from Oliana was one of the candidates for victory in each edition and finished fourth twice as his best results. In his car, he finished 21st in 2018 and 2019, just short of that Top 20, which this 2024 has seen him finish 22nd in the T1+ category that he is determined to fight for again next year.  

Toyota Spain starts its competitive year full of energy, enthusiasm and with a promising future, and always striving to develop the most innovative technologies, using the competition as a test bench to bring everything it has learned in the competition to the road car models.

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