Latvala had a long career in the World Rally Championship, and the Finn remains the driver with the most starts in the series.
The 2019 season ultimately became Latvala’s last at the highest level. Everything changed five years ago in Sardinia. A stage following Friday’s lunch break marked the turning point in Latvala’s career.
At that time, Latvala had just enjoyed a hearty lunch in Alghero and was brimming with confidence. He was ready to claim his first win of the 2019 season.
But less than an hour later, Latvala and his Toyota Yaris were off the road in the forest. He had made one of the most foolish mistakes of his career, and his fight for victory came to an abrupt end. Latvala had taken a hairpin corner too aggressively, causing his Toyota to roll onto its roof. A similar incident would happen again later in the same season.
At the time, Latvala didn’t give entirely honest answers to the media about the root cause of his unusual susceptibility to errors. Perhaps he didn’t know the answers himself. Now, five years on from those bitter moments, Latvala is finally ready to talk about them.
“I can be very honest,” Latvala told Dirtfish.
“I lost the passion for driving in 2019. Until that year, always coming to a World Rally Championship event, I had always, you know, a bit of excitement in the body. During that year when it was difficult,” Latvala continued.
At that time, Latvala was also facing challenges off the rally stages, which significantly affected his driving.
“It was difficult because of my personal relationships, but also the problems [I was having] with the taxation things. They started to get in my head. And when I coming to the events, I wasn’t nervous anymore. That was actually a bad sign. You think it would be good, but it wasn’t,” Latvala said candidly.
Latvala felt that something had changed, but he didn’t take it seriously enough. However, something irreversible had already happened.
“When you are not excited anymore, you lose a little bit the nervous feeling. You have lost the passion for competition. I only realized this after that season. That was the sign when I should have got more critical about it,” Latvala admitted.
“If I would have managed the situation better, you never know. Maybe I would have been driving now,” Latvala added.
Latvala paused briefly at this point. Then he found the words to articulate what he had been reflecting on.
“But on the other hand. I would never have been the team principal. So it’s always two aspects on the side. And being in this job and seeing the drivers and the way the drivers are, what they’re doing, I also realized it – my mistakes, what I did,” Latvala reflected.
Latvala had a successful and long career in the WRC, but he never became a world champion. According to him, there’s no point in speculating about that.
“So even if I carried on, probably I would have never been world champion because I would have needed the break to understand the mistakes what I was doing,” Latvala admitted.
Latvala has continued rallying even after his active career ended. Next year, he plans to compete more himself, as he participates in the historic European Rally Championship.
“It took a couple of years after 2019. And when I’ve been doing these events with the Celica, I realized it started, the feeling started to come back. And it’s been coming more and more,” Latvala shared.
“And 2023, Rally Finland, for the first time I felt, now it’s, you know, the old feeling is really back. And ’24, I can feel that it was coming even more. And then that was the decision I said, now I realize that what I know, what I learned, what I have done, now that all the skills are back,” Latvala continued.
Sport is about technical performance, but the mental aspect always plays a significant role.
“In 2019 I had lost them because my mind was far away. But I have got my mind back, so now I want to enjoy the driving again. Now it’s time and I feel the passion has come back. And at the same time there was this opening, a new door, that the European Historic Championship was changing the regulations and allowing newer cars to come in,” Latvala said.
“One of my favorite cars has been the Toyota Celica ST185 and the year 1993 when Juha Kankkunen won the championship. This has been my like one dream, to drive that car in a competition. And now it’s going to happen,” Latvala enthused.
