Toyota's return to the World Rally Championship and the development of the Yaris WRC was originally overseen by Toyota Motorsport GmbH, the successor to Toyota Team Europe, the team that ran Toyota Celicas and the Toyota Corolla WRC in the 1980s and 1990s. With Toyota Motorsport GmbH also overseeing the development and operation of the Toyota TS050 Hybrid in the World Endurance Championship, Toyota elected to reassign the project to Tommi Mäkinen. Mäkinen shelved the Yaris WRC prototype developed by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and started anew.
2017
made their return to the WRC after eighteen years of absence in 2017 season with Toyota Yaris WRC. Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila left Volkswagen Motorsport following the team's withdrawal from the sport to join Toyota Gazoo Racing, where they were partnered with Juho Hänninen—who returned to the championship for the first time since 2014—and Kaj Lindström. Reigning WRC-2 champions Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm made their début in a WRC specification car, contesting a partial campaign from the Rally of Portugal. Toyota last competed in the sport as a factory-supported team between 1997 and 1999 with the Corolla WRC before withdrawing ahead of the 2000 season to focus on its Formula One project. The team took their first podium at the 2017 Monte Carlo Rally, and took their first win at the next round in the 2017 Rally Sweden. The teams best run of the season came in Finland, with Esapekka Lappi taking his first WRC win and Juho Hänninen taking his first podium finish, Jari-Matti Latvala had to retire from the lead with a mechanical problem.
2018
Before the 2018 season, Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja left M-Sport to join the team, replacing Juho Hänninen and Kaj Lindström. Hänninen and Lindström remained with the team, with Hänninen taking on a test driver role and Lindström replacing Jarmo Lehtinen as the team's sporting director. In August, the team located its service base to Estonia, 8 km from the capital of Tallinn. Headquarters, development, testing and administration will stay in Finland. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT was able to capture the 2018 World Rally Championship manufacturers title. With Tommi Mäkinen heading the team, he became the first person in the history of rally driving to win a Championship both as a driver and as a team principal. Ott Tänak took four rally wins, including three consecutive and Jari-Matti Latvala won once.
In 2019, Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm left to join Citroën after two years with the team. Kris Meeke and Sebastian Marshall would instead drive a third car in the championship.
2020
Now entering the 2020 season, Toyota has a brand newline up with six-time WRC champion Sébastien Ogier joining from Citroën who have pulled out of the 2020 season with Elfyn Evans from M-Sport and Kalle Rovanperä from Škoda Motorsport all joining Toyota for this season, as 2019 champion Ott Tänak left to join Hyundai, and Kris Meeke left the team as well.
