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Toyota eye leaner Yaris WRC

Tommi Mäkinen has revealed Toyota Gazoo Racing is working hard to reduce the weight of its Yaris WRC in a bid to make it even more competitive.

The car is taking part in only its fourth event of the season at this week's Che Guevara Energy Drink Tour de Corse but has already shown itself to be a competitive package this season.

Jari-Matti Latvala guided the car to second place on its debut at Rallye Monte-Carlo, before then winning Rally Sweden a month later.

But team principal Mäkinen believes there is plenty more potential that can be unlocked if the weight of the car is reduced. This would allow the Toyota engineers more freedom when effectively positioning ballast to meet the minimum weight requirement of 1190kilos.

"I think we need to find the car a diet and that is one of the things we are working on now to make the car quicker," Mäkinen confirmed. "At the moment, we are not able to carry so much ballast which can make a car better.

"We are working on these little areas and we are happy that we know we have something to improve. We know the areas where we can do better."

Zdroj: wrc.com