The son of 1996
British Rally Championship Champion and former
WRC driver
Gwyndaf Evans, he is sponsored by the family
Ford motor dealership in
Dolgellau, first established by his great-grandfather in
Dinas Mawddwy, renamed to Gwyndaf Evans Motors in 1983. Evans began his professional career in 2007, driving a
Group N production-car-class
Ford Fiesta in the
Ford Fiesta Sporting Trophy. He also competed in that year's
Rally GB in Wales. In 2010, Evans won the British Junior Rally championship and was the winner of the UK Ford Fiesta Trophy series, also he won the Pirelli Star Driver Shoot-out after two days of tests and assessments at the Sweet Lamb rally complex in his native Wales, with a prize of a fully funded season in a Pirelli-backed Group N
Subaru Impreza run by the championship-winning TEG Sport team – a prize worth in excess of £200,000. In 2012, Evans secured the
FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Academy title, the R2 title in the British Rally Championship (BRC) and the UK Fiesta Sport Trophy. In addition, he won the end-of-year FST International Shootout. In 2013 he contested a programme of WRC events in a 4WD car – his prize for winning the WRC Academy – and worked at M-Sport, helping to develop rally cars for the WRC and other championships. Evans' 2013 season began with the first round of the Australian Rally Championship, the National Rally in Canberra, in which he retired early on the first day. He then drove a Fiesta RRC on the WRC Rally of Portugal, retiring with a transmission problem before starting the final day under Rally 2 regulations. To his surprise, he was then asked to compete on the Rally Italy in Sardinia in a Ford Fiesta World Rally Car after
Nasser Al-Attiyah was forced to withdraw because of commitments in Qatar. Despite having never competed on the event before, using Nasser's co-driver, competing in a WRC car for the first time and with no pre-event testing, Evans finished sixth. Evans switched to
M-Sport for the 2014 season to drive a
Ford Fiesta WRC as the teammate of veteran
Mikko Hirvonen. His best results have been fourth at Mexico and Germany. The driver scored two podiums in 2015, finishing 7th in the overall standings. M-Sport dropped Evans to the
WRC-2 in 2016. Driving a Ford Fiesta R5, scoring wins at Monte Carlo, Sweden and Tour de Corse. He also won the
2016 British Rally Championship with five wins in seven races, also driving the Ford Fiesta R5. for the
2018 Rallye Deutschland For
2017, Elfyn rejoined the
M-Sport World Rally Team to drive the
DMACK car. He started the year with sixth in
Monte Carlo, setting several fastest stage times, and then repeated the performance in
Sweden. After two disappointing rounds in
Mexico and
Corsica, at round five in
Argentina, Evans benefited from misfortune for his rivals to end day one with a minute's lead. On day two, Evans struggled with punctures, a spin and a damaged diffuser, and saw his lead fall to just 11 seconds. On the final stage, it was a straight battle between him and
Hyundai driver
Thierry Neuville. He pushed early in the stage, but lost several seconds when he hit a bridge. He tried hard to make up the lost time, but in the end he lost his first victory by just 0.7 seconds to Neuville. In
Finland, Evans was left to uphold team honors after a crash for teammate
Sébastien Ogier and a puncture for
Ott Tänak. He dutifully set consistent top three stage times and snatched second place on the last stage from
Juho Hänninen, in what many journalists described as the best drive of his career so far. At the penultimate round on his home rally in
Wales, Evans took advantage of his DMACK tyres, which were widely suited to the conditions, to take his first WRC victory, the first for a Welsh driver, and the first for a British driver on
Wales Rally GB since the late
Richard Burns in 2000. He would finish the championship in fifth place. Evans would later repeat the success he found in Wales with a second career victory in the
2020 Rally Sweden, during his first season with
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, where he led the rally despite adverse weather conditions which forced the organisers to abridge the event to just nine stages. This marked his first win in Sweden, his first rally win for Toyota, and the first British driver to win the event. His victory in Sweden also allowed him to lead the points standings in the WRC driver's championship for the first time in his career. He eventually finished the year in second position in the Covid-abbreviated championship, helped by a second rally win of the season in the
2020 Rally Turkey. He finished the season eight points behind champion
Sébastien Ogier, and nine points ahead of
Ott Tänak, who finished third. During the
2021 World Rally Championship, his second season with Toyota, Evans won two further WRC events, in
Portugal and
Finland, and finished in second position in five others. He remained in contention for the title until the final rally of the season, but finished that event in second position to championship winner and Toyota teammate Ogier with only a 0.6-second time difference. For the second year in a row, Evans finished the championship in second position, 23 points behind Ogier and 31 points ahead of third-placed
Thierry Neuville. During the
2022 World Rally Championship, his third season with Toyota, teammate
Kalle Rovanperä secured the drivers' championship title. Evans did not secure any wins this season, but with four podium finishes, ended the championship in fourth position. Evans contributes his dry spell in 2022 to not adapting to the new hybrid cars introduced at the start of the season, admitting others adapted better, but he was determined to improve for the 2023 season with hopes to challenge for the title. The
2023 World Rally Championship saw a return to glory for Evans, securing 3 rally wins, in
Croatia Rally,
Rally Finland and
Rally Japan, in order to secure the runner-up spot behind teammate and championship winner Kalle Rovanperä. The
2024 World Rally Championship saw Evans pick-up another runners-up spot, behind Thierry Neuville who had just secured his first drivers championship, Evans took his first and only win of the season in the closing round at
2024 Rally Japan taking the championship runner-up spot away from Ott Tänak who retired. This marked Evans fourth time as the WRC drivers' championship runner-up, hoping to mount a championship challenge for the 2025 season. The
2025 World Rally Championship brought on new regulations that removed the hybrid systems that had only just been introduced in 2022. A change that Evans' had previously attributed to a slump in form, Evans' had previously excelled with the non-hybrid Toyotas of 2020 and 2021, mounting championship battles with 8-time World Rally Champion
Sebastian Ogier in both years, which proved a positive outlook for Evans' possible championship challenge for the 2025 season. Evans' went on to lead the championship for majority of the season, seeing his lead whittled away by Sebastian Ogier, who clinched the title at the final event in
Saudi Arabia. Runner-up once again to the now 9-time world champion. Evan's was officially announced as a driver for the
2026 World Rally Championship season on November 10, 2025, Toyota are expected to still be the car to beat in 2026 but Evans' will have stark competition in Ogier, who will be driving part-time, and new teammate
Oliver Solberg who is replacing
Kalle Rovanpera, many expecting the young talent to be fighting at the pointy end of the world championship in his first full season for Toyota in Rally 1, making no room for Evans' to take it easy in his preparation for the 2026 season. ==WRC victories==