It is probably not a statistic that Jari-Matti Latvala likes to be reminded of, but the 18-time World Rally Championship event winner is the man who has collected the most trophies as a driver without clinching the biggest prize of all.
But, by rights, he can still claim to have conquered the globe in his role as the team principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team. And then some.
He has steered the Japanese marque to a raft of success in recent seasons which included a lock-out of the drivers and teams’ title this year and also involved the unearthing the WRC’s Next Big Thing in Kalle Rovanpera. It was the second-successive season that the Yaris has reached the summit of the drivers’ and teams’ competitions.
The now-37-year-old grew up around the service parks proffering support to his father Jari’s successful domestic career in Finland. Latvala Jr’s progress was rapid and it included an outing on Wales Rally GB in 2002 when he was just 17 years old. He ironed out any mistakes and learned his craft with a season in the British Rally Championship in 2003 – which also involved a sign-off win on the season-ending Tempest Rally – alongside four outings in the World Rally Championship in a Ford Focus WRC.
“I was trying to fix dad’s car when I was three”
Jari-Matti Latvala
Success in the Production Car World Rally Championship in a Subaru Impreza in 2006 was the launchpad he needed to then go on and announce himself in the top tier in 2007 in the Stobart VK M-Sport World Rally Team and a year later he was a winner with Malcolm Wilson’s main squad in Sweden.
Some 17 victories later, and he had a phone call that changed the direction of his life when he took over as team principal at the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team
