WRC: No Toyota driver news before autumn

Tommi Makinen does not anticipate announcing Toyota's 2017 World Rally Championship driver line-up before the autumn.

There was considerable speculation over Toyota's driver plans at Rally Mexico earlier this month when former Hyundai factory driver Juho Hanninen and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom completed the recce. The Finnish duo confirmed they would recce all remaining rounds of the season, fuelling talk that they would drive a works Yaris WRC.

Asked if Hanninen could feature in the 2017 line-up, Toyota program chief Makinen said: "We will see. It's one of the possibilities.

"The reason he does the recce is to help us prepare the test programme and to help us find identical conditions for the testing this year. It's really helping us training for next year.

"It's not yet the time to talk about drivers really. We will be looking at all different kinds of possibilities, but it's too early right now. It's more reasonable to talk about this in the autumn."

Both Hanninen and former Ford and Citroen factory WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen are expected to be involved in the Yaris test program. Makinen has previously expressed an interest in luring fellow past WRC champions Sebastien Loeb and Petter Solberg back into the series.

Originally on Autosport.com