Pajari gets to try his speed at the highest level of the sport for the first time behind the wheel of Toyota’s Rally1 car. The Finn is known as a calm and analytical driver, and at least at the beginning of the race week, there were no major butterflies in his stomach.
“Overall, I feel really good. I can’t say I’m particularly nervous. Maybe at the start of Harju, but mostly I just feel really good,” Pajari enthused to RallyJournal.com.
Pajari got another chance to test the Rally1 car on Monday when the Finnish driver drove with Sebastien Ogier at the team’s test area in the morning. No major adjustments were made; it was more about getting a feel for the car.
“It was good to get a little more drive time on Monday to get a bit of a feel. I’m quite confident,” Pajari said.
“We drove the Rally2 car in the Rally Latvia in between the previous tests. Now it was good to drive without pressure and get used to this car. That was the main goal. We weren’t looking for any more settings.”
Pajari has now tested the Rally1 car a few times. The 2021 Junior World Champion feels that he has become quite comfortable with the hybrid car.
“I feel quite confident with the car. I still think I’m not aiming for the win. I have a good relaxed feeling with the car and roughly know how to drive each corner,” Pajari noted.
“I think that now that I have a good feeling, the pressure is much less because it feels like the car is under control.”
No result targets
Pajari has emphasised many times that he has no result targets for his first WRC rally with the Rally1 car. Gaining experience is key.
“I think if we are a second per kilometre behind in terms of speed at the beginning, that would be a good starting point. I believe that if we could get to half a second per kilometre at some point in the race, it would have gone really well,” Pajari summarised.
“I know roughly what the speed is based on the tests. Yes, there is some kind of speed there. That gives a good feeling, but of course, it’s a completely different thing in the race.”
Latvian Martins Sesks impressed by debuting in the Rally Poland with a fifth place, even though he drove a Ford Puma without a hybrid unit. In his home race in Latvia a couple of weeks ago, Sesks was even in contention for a podium place, but a technical fault on the final special stage ruined the rally.
Pajari himself does not compare to the Latvian sensation and also hopes for understanding from the general public. The Latvian knew the tricks of his home race very well, but for all the other drivers, it was a new rally. In Rally Finland, the situation is different, as many factory drivers have already driven the rally more than ten times.
“It (Sesks’ success) doesn’t put any pressure on me. He was able to drive very well, so maybe it shows more that new faces can also do well there. I don’t see it as a negative in any way,” Pajari explained.
“However, these are very different competitions. In Jyväskylä, it has been seen before that even though a Finn is driving on home roads, it has always been challenging. It is not one-to-one that a home rally would be any easier.”
Pajari does emphasise, however, that Sesks’ debut at the top level of the WRC was impressive.
“I certainly don’t take anything away from them; he drove extremely well and all credit to them for that. They still drove their strongest rallies, and those two races were new to everyone. Through that, the home advantage was greater for them.”
