Toyota last competed in the WRC in 1999 before withdrawing to focus on its Formula One program. In January 2015, the company officially announced its intention to return to the championship for the 2017 season. Initial development was delegated to Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) in Germany — the division that had run Toyota Team Europe and the 1980s and 1990s WRC campaigns with Group B and Group A Celicas and the Corolla WRC. In July 2015, however, Toyota President Akio Toyoda reassigned project leadership to Tommi Mäkinen, who relocated the team to his native Finland. Only the engine would be sourced from TMG. New 2017 WRC technical regulations also forced Mäkinen to set aside the original Yaris WRC prototype and restart development from scratch.
Toyota entered the 2017 season with the Toyota Yaris WRC, filling the competitive gap left by Volkswagen Motorsport's sudden withdrawal. Jari-Matti Latvala, Juho Hänninen, and Esapekka Lappi — the latter on a partial campaign from Portugal — formed the initial lineup. The team took their first WRC podium at the Monte Carlo Rally and their first victory at the following round in Sweden. Lappi delivered a breakthrough win at Rally Finland, with Hänninen also scoring his first WRC podium. The team finished the season third in the manufacturers' standings.
Ott Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja joined for 2018, replacing Hänninen. Tänak took four victories, including three in succession. Jari-Matti Latvala also contributed a win. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT won the 2018 manufacturers' championship — the marque's first since 1999 — with Tommi Mäkinen becoming the first person in WRC history to win both as a driver and as a team principal. In August 2018, the team opened a new service base in Estonia, approximately eight kilometres from Tallinn, used alongside the headquarters in Finland.
Ott Tänak and co-driver Järveoja won the 2019 drivers' and co-drivers' world championships, though Toyota finished runners-up to Hyundai in the manufacturers' standings. Tänak departed to Hyundai for 2020, and Toyota signed a transformative new lineup: six-time champion Sébastien Ogier from the disbanded Citroën squad, Elfyn Evans from M-Sport, and young Kalle Rovanperä from Škoda. The COVID-19 pandemic curtailed the 2020 season to seven rounds; Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia emerged as champions. Toyota again finished second to Hyundai in the manufacturers' standings.
Toyota retained Ogier, Rovanperä, and Evans for 2021, with Takamoto Katsuta completing his first full season. Jari-Matti Latvala assumed the team principal role following Mäkinen's departure to become a motorsports advisor to Toyota Motor Corporation; Toyota Gazoo Racing also completed the purchase of the team and operational assets from Tommi Mäkinen Racing in September 2020. Ogier and Ingrassia won the drivers' and co-drivers' championships with victory at the season-ending Rally Monza, before retiring from full-time competition. Toyota won nine of twelve events to take the manufacturers' title, completing their first championship double since the return to WRC.
New regulations for 2022 mandated a hybrid powertrain and tubular spaceframe chassis, ushering in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid. Kalle Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen won six rallies and both world championships, with Rovanperä becoming the youngest world champion in WRC history — surpassing Colin McRae's previous record by nearly five years. At Safari Rally Kenya, Toyota achieved a 1-2-3-4 finish, the first team to do so on a WRC round since Citroën at Rally Bulgaria in 2010. The team successfully defended the manufacturers' title.
Toyota secured three consecutive manufacturers' championships from 2022 through 2024. Rovanperä and Halttunen defended their drivers' titles in 2023. In 2024, despite ceding the drivers' title to Hyundai's Thierry Neuville, Toyota took the manufacturers' championship by three points at the final round in Japan. The team also debuted the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in 2024 for customer and development drivers; WRC2 champion Sami Pajari secured the GR Yaris Rally2's maiden WRC2 victory in Portugal.
The TGR WRC Challenge Program, established in 2015, identifies and develops young Japanese drivers for the WRC. Its most successful graduate is Takamoto Katsuta, who progressed through the program to compete for manufacturer points in the main team. The program's third generation, started in 2024, includes Shotaro Goto and Takumi Matsushita competing in Renault Clio Rally4s alongside more senior program members in GR Yaris Rally2s.
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT's return to the WRC after eighteen years confirmed the team's ability to build a competitive operation from scratch in a compressed timeframe. Their manufacturers' championship record — five titles in seven seasons — and the emergence of Kalle Rovanperä as the sport's youngest world champion underline the team's status as the benchmark factory squad in contemporary WRC competition.