It was a surprise when M-Sport announced that their 25 year old World Championship driver Teemu Suninen was to be co-driven on the Sardinian WRC rally by the 50 year old veteran, Jarmo Lehtinen.
Lehtinen was a winner in earlier times of fourteen WRC events, five years after his last event in a state-of-the-art rally car.
Best known as the co-driver for Mikko Hirvonen, who gave up his WRC career at the end of 2014, Jarmo soon found that life at the top end of the sport had changed a lot in the past five years.
Although he had competed in some events the year before in Finland with the Toyota trainee driver Hiroki Arai at R5 level.
Lehtinen made a spectacular return to WRC competition when he took Suninen to a career best second place in Sardinia.
In the calm before the start of Neste Rally Finland, Jarmo told us a lot about the recent changes he had already noticed in the sport in 2019.
“In many aspects the rallies are different,” he said.
“When I started, the recces were longer and although we were already using a single central service park, it was clear the old days were not coming back.
“The world has changed, infrastructure has changed, you can't go on any more than four days or drive fifty odd stages, it isn’t possible.
“But now for me, the format nowadays is pretty good. It’s effective, it brings rallying closer to the fans.
Lehtinen also touched on the cars and their increased development.
Teemu Suninen slides his Fiesta at Rally Finland, with new co-driver Lehtinen alongside. Photo: Holmes
“The cars have developed a lot - the biggest thing is maybe the differentials and making them easier to drive.
“Then when preparing for the oncoming rallies and learning from the previous rallies, life is different. There are so many more tools to use now to do that with data, videos and so forth. It’s now really fascinating,” he explained.
Cars themselves are quite different in 2019, especially with the new aero parts.
Lehtinen commented on how they compare with the previous world rally cars that he competed in, and he finds them fascinating.
“At Rally Finland you are lying if you're not frightened or scared at any point. If you're not frightened, you're not fast enough,” he said.
“Especially on rallies like Finland when we have a lot of big fast roads, then the aerodynamics play a big part - actually the aero makes the car feel so much calmer.
“In the last generation of cars, you were all over the place all the time and you felt that you were always more on the limit.
“I know now we go a bit faster on the fast roads, but it feels more stable.”
It’s interesting that despite all the new available down force, the cars are still jumping high.
“The jumps are quite big here in Finland and sometimes you could fly a lot further but they are jumping less often.
“I can feel the difference compared to last time I was in a car.
“On gravel you do not experience much greater stress, maybe a little bit more now, but in that sense I don't see a big difference.
“I still have to discover the change in G-force on asphalt!
“There is a change in the rhythm of the pace notes. maybe on some kind of technical (twisty) sections you can drive through so quickly now that it needs change, but for me it’s not so massive.
Jarmo comes from Lahti, south of Jyvaskyla, not so far from Teemu, but it is a big age gap, however.
“It’s really nice. He could be my son - we have 25 years of difference in age.
Jarmo Lehtinen rode with Mikko Hirvonen for more than a decade. Photo: Maurice Selden
“I already knew Teemu a little bit before. I'd worked as his gravel crew and kind of know his approach to the rallying, and I'm really intrigued and fascinated at the level of motivation and commitment he has.
“For me, I feel kind of privileged that I once made my way up to there - on top and lived my dream. Now I can kind of live it again with the young talent, so it’s a really nice feeling to feel the same motivation I had 25-30 years ago - it’s a fantastic feeling."
Why did he stop when Mikko Hirvonen retired?
“When Mikko stopped at the end of 2014, I wasn't ready to stop.
“My honest plan was to stop for maybe a sabbatical for six months and start to look for a new ride for 2016.
“Meanwhile, before I got started with looking for a new ride, Tommi Makinen called me about his Toyota project and then like snapping the fingers, three years was gone!
“I didn't even remember how much I was missing being inside the rally car.
“When the job of helping set up the TGR team was done, and the team was up and running, my job was done at Toyota.
“I could have stayed if I'd liked, but then I felt like the interesting part was kind of done. It was time for a new challenge.
“I now see a different side of rallying. Before I went to Toyota I was only in the rally car. At Toyota I saw things from the team side and had to co-operate a lot with the FIA and with the organisers. It had been really fascinating.
“Then I started to work with the Promoter and found it a good solution, but when the phone call came, around Chile this year about returning to co-driving, I had a few sleepless nights to think about it.
“I knew my passion is there. Rallying in these cars, as they say, is the best thing you can do with your clothes on!
“When Tommi’s call came it was a really tough decision. I already had commitments everywhere. I still think the rally car is my home.
“A decision to accept took a few days, but I like Teemu. I believe the potential in him.”
Teemu Suninen with fellow Finnish WRC driver, Esapekka Lappi and Jari-Matti Latvala
Jarmo’s home is now with M-Sport who this year are running without Sebastien Ogier in the team, and he is someone who clearly gave a lot of inspiration to this team.
“For sure he gave a lot and it was a good boost when he had two years in the team and everybody learned what it takes to have success in rallying.
“It is always a matter of resources and things, but I have to say I'm impressed with what these guys are doing knowing where they are coming from.
“It’s really impressive and I'm enjoying being here. I've spent most of my career in this team alongside Mikko so it’s a little bit like coming home in that sense as well.”
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