Throughout the 14 races of the World Rally Championships, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally team (TGR) faces some of the sport’s toughest stages and challenges. With road conditions ranging from deserts to snow-topped mountains, TGR’s teams of drivers, co-drivers, engineers, and mechanics must work in perfect lock-step to bring the fastest car possible to every rally and record the quickest times. Now, after winning the manufactures championship in 2018, the team is working to uphold their reputation.
Driving 100mph+ over some of the toughest terrain in motorsports, there’s no time for anything less than perfection. With 150 people spread across teams in Finland, Japan, and beyond, Toyota Gazoo racing turned to Microsoft to help keep their essential work on track and their teams functioning at the highest levels.
Beyond the course
Rally cars face nature’s toughest elements. This means that engineering must meet the highest levels of precision—and TGR teams must collaborate with efficiency and accuracy to make this tall order a reality.
Leveraging Microsoft technology, TGR is reinventing how a world rally team operates. At the center of this collaboration is Microsoft’s Azure DevOps, which the team uses to track new ideas through their entire life cycle from design to production to testing—and finally into the Rally itself. Used across every team at TGR, Azure DevOps has become an essential tool—a unified solution that has changed the team’s culture while boosting rally performance.
It was quite cool to see the car brought to life digitally, as it gave me a new perspective of the rally car and showed me angles that I don’t typically see when the car is in front of me.
Leenu Sepa, Marketing Assistant, Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team
Making a splash
Essential for protecting a rally car’s delicate engine while crossing puddles, streams, and rivers, the water splash valve is a crucial piece of engineering with a real effect on performance. When TGR noticed an issue with their design during Rally Argentina, the team used Azure DevOps to manage the entire process of designing, building, and testing a replacement.
As soon as the issue was diagnosed, Azure DevOps kept the entire project on track even as it moved across an array of teams and experts. Using the tool’s integrated comment feature, TGR members were able to ask questions, add comments, and assign tasks while working at rally-worthy speeds. By adding transparency to the process, experts could instantly see what tasks still needed to be completed and who was assigned to do them. Despite the project’s immense complexity, TGR was able to design, test, and implement a new part in time for the team’s next rally (about 11 days between races).
Racing into the future
Using Microsoft’s full suite of technology, TGR has streamlined a number of processes, helping the team react nimbly and efficiently to new challenges.
Together, Microsoft’s solutions have allowed TGR to work effectively and focus on what they do best—winning rallies. With the full team always looking towards their next rally, their partnership with Microsoft ensures TGR will be ready for any challenges around the corner.
