Suninen competed in the WRC2 category with Hyundai last season, but it turned out to be a difficult campaign. The Korean manufacturer failed to provide a competitive car for the Finn.
Since then, Suninen has taken part in individual test sessions and simultaneously started working as a driving coach. He has been helping Finnish rising star Tuukka Kauppinen as well as several young international talents.
Suninen feels he has a lot to offer to young drivers. He believes he can give them valuable advice.
“I don’t have any formal training as a mental coach or physical trainer. It’s more about a holistic kind of coaching, where we know what it means to be at the top of the world and what Rally1 requires,” Suninen told RallyJournal.com.
The Finnish driver has plenty of experience in rallying. He has seen the top level of the sport and knows exactly what it takes to get there.
“If I clearly see that something needs to be done on the physical side, I would turn to a professional coach. Of course, I could probably make use of some of the training programmes I’ve received myself and pass them on. I do have some knowledge, but my own strengths definitely lie more on the driving and pacenote side,” Suninen continued.
Speaking of pacenotes, Suninen also got the chance to gain some experience from the co-driver’s seat earlier this year when he navigated for Ville Kaukonen at the Arctic Lapland Rally.
“It was a nice experience. It gave me an insight into rallying from the co-driver’s perspective and what it’s like for someone doing it for the first time,” Suninen said.
“I definitely picked up some useful things from it. Now I have a better understanding of the whole package. A good set of pacenotes means the co-driver understands them, and that they’re easy to read. That makes it easier to deliver them correctly to the driver. If the distances or severity of the corners don’t match, then the co-driver’s job becomes difficult,” Suninen explained.
Suninen got a close-up look at how challenging the role of a co-driver really is – even though the first outing was more of a learning experience.
“It was fun and enjoyable. But of course, it was still quite far from what real co-driving is like at this level,” Suninen chuckled.
