One of these is Sami Pajari, whose career has been meticulously built over several years. Pajari was crowned the SM3 champion in the Finnish Rally Championship in 2019. Afterward, he moved on to international stages, and in 2021, he secured the JWRC championship in the WRC series.
Now competing in the WRC2 class in a Toyota Rally2 car, Pajari is well known to Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala. They even practiced driving together in 2020 when Latvala’s career in the WRC’s premier class had come to an end.
Since then, Latvala has closely followed Pajari’s career progression. Especially now, as Pajari is somewhat of a Toyota man, albeit competing with a private team’s equipment.
“Sami was fifth in Monte Carlo, but it’s important to remember that the car wasn’t quite perfect for those conditions. In Sweden, he was already second. He has consistently been on an upward trajectory,” Latvala summarises Pajari’s early season performances to RallyJournal.com.
“Of course, Sami is of great interest to us. Looking at these young drivers, I think Sami and, of course, Oliver Solberg are probably the fastest among those in their twenties.”
The headquarters of Toyota’s factory team is located in Jyväskylä, Finland, which is about 25 kilometres from Printsport’s facilities in Lievestuore. Led by Eero Räikkönen, Printsport is running Pajari in this year’s World Rally Championship.
Toyota had a hand in ensuring that Pajari got to use the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car developed in Jyväskylä right from the start of this season.
“We wanted to offer cars to young rising drivers. It was clear then that Sami was interested in Toyota, so it was essential to get him a car among the first,” Latvala says.
Toyota’s factory team currently has four drivers competing in the premier class of the WRC with Rally1 cars. Kalle Rovanperä, Takamoto Katsuta, and Elfyn Evans are not yet in the twilight of their careers, but the situation for Sebastien Ogier is different. The Frenchman has been content to run partial seasons in recent years, and at some point, his active career will come to an end.
It could be then that a spot in the Toyota factory team might be available for a younger generation driver.
The question then is, how high up on Toyota’s list is Pajari’s name?
“Let’s just say that he is certainly at the top of the list,” Latvala states with a smile.
“We have an interest in him and we are keeping an eye on him.”
Pajari will compete next this coming weekend when the WRC series continues with the Portuguese round.
