Last season, Teemu Suninen showed promising performance in the main class of the World Rally Championship, but this season he found himself without a seat.
However, the Finnish driver will still have plenty of driving to do this season. Suninen’s season is likely to start in the spring at Rally de Portugal, behind the wheel of Hyundai’s Rally2 car. Portugal would be a very pleasant place for Suninen to start the season.
“We’ve been there many times over the years and achieved good results. It would be nice to start the season there,” Suninen told RallyJournal.com.
“However, our contract negotiations are still ongoing. They need to be finalized one way or another,” Suninen continued.
Suninen hasn’t had to rest on his laurels either. However, one thing puzzles the Finnish driver.
“Of course, I’ve had a big responsibility in testing. It’s quite a peculiar situation that they want to use me, but we haven’t reached an agreement yet,” Suninen said.
Suninen believes he will continue to play a significant role in testing.
“I think they need a top driver if they want to achieve results,” Suninen stated.
“Emil (Lindholm) has indeed achieved good results, but in my opinion, it’s not good for a factory team to rely on just one driver. Anything can happen. One tire puncture, and you miss out on the result. If they want to go in with two drivers, it would be much easier to get results,” Suninen outlined.
There are many advantages to using two drivers.
“It allows for a lot of cooperation and joint development of the car. It’s easier to achieve results with two drivers.”
Suninen believes the car will be developed surprisingly a lot.
“There’s been a strong effort at least. For the FIA, it’s still a question mark what reforms will be introduced and on what schedule. There were a lot of things that worked great, but then you also had to choose what could be done and what couldn’t. The question is also about the impact of these new cars on how much it’s worth developing this car or whether to start making a completely new Rally2 car,” Suninen explained.
“The next few weeks will likely show which direction we’ll go.”
This year, Suninen will probably have a lighter program than last year, which initially suited the Finn quite well.
“It has changed a lot. At first, I even joked about spending the summer holidays of 2022. The first couple of weeks, it was fun, but I have a strong desire to get back to serious racing,” Suninen said.
Last year, Suninen didn’t have a summer holiday, nor did he have much in the way of days off, as he competed in the main class of the WRC.
“Jumping into a Rally1 car was quite tough because we were always on the move, and I was always ready to go. There weren’t really any holidays all summer. But it was a great experience and taught me a lot. I would have liked to utilize those lessons more now,” Suninen regretted.
