Kris Meeke is still determined to become World Rally Champion despite his eight-month absence from the series.
The Northern Irishman was recently announced as a new Toyota driver and has spent much of the past week testing a Yaris on roads around the team’s Puuppola base in central Finland.
"My main target is for success, I want to be a World Rally Champion and I still believe I can," said Meeke. "I have given my life to rallying and rallying has given me so much and certainly I didn’t feel it was time to stop.
"I still think I can achieve a lot more in the sport and hopefully with this new exciting venture we can achieve good things together."
Toyota WRC boss Tommi Mäkinen said that Meeke will have the same chance to challenge for next year’s title, even though Ott Tänak is the squad’s lead driver.
"They will all have absolutely identical equipment next year," he continued. "They will all have the same chances and we will put the maximum effort to all three cars to try to make the best results they can."
He confirmed both Meeke and Latvala have single-season agreements for 2019.
"It’s been a difficult few months for me but I wasn’t that long away before I got that hunger back," Meeke added. "I knew deep down that I wanted to come back and drive a rally car.
"Since my departure out of the championship in May I took a few months to myself, but when I lifted to phone to Tommi it all seemed to click. I came out to visit him in Jyvaskyla and I could sit and talk for hours about the car and the technical aspects. It’s all forward thinking and that was refreshing, it’s not something I’ve been used to for quite a period of time."
Mäkinen added: "We want Kris to drive as much as possible. I know how important it is to understand how the car behaves and what the car is doing. I want Kris to come and enjoy being with us, I want him to enjoy the driving. We saw this year with Jari-Matti; when you take away the pressure from his shoulders then the speed and the enjoyment and the results are coming. Kris has to drive to enjoy himself, this is the most important thing. I don’t want him to take any pressure."
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