Toyota’s team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, opens up about the challenge of watching the Safari Rally from home and why missing the event could work in his favor for the upcoming rounds in the Canaries and Portugal.
It’s not exactly a shocking revelation in the World Rally Championship world: Jari-Matti Latvala doesn’t enjoy watching rallies from a distance.
The highly successful Toyota team boss missed last month’s Safari Rally Kenya, the third round of the season, as he was recovering from his victory in the opening round of the European Historic Rally Championship in Spain.
“I had done two rallies back-to-back,” Latvala explained to DirtFish. “Kenya would have been the third, and I think that would’ve been a bit too much.”
“I have to admit, it felt a bit strange. I knew the rally was happening, and everyone was there, but I wasn’t. Part of me really wanted to be there, and it was harder than I expected to watch the stages from home.”
“I’ll be honest, it made me feel a little down. It was the first time in many years that I was at home watching a WRC event since 2020. There was that one time I missed a rally in 2020 because I was racing at the Fuji 24 Hours, but that was a completely different situation.”
Since becoming team principal at the start of the 2021 season, Jari-Matti Latvala admitted that being away from the usual rally action was a challenge, though having four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen as his deputy helped ease the situation.
“When I was watching the powerstage and saw Taka [Katsuta] roll, it was tough,” Latvala shared. “I kept asking the team if he was okay to continue and what the situation was. It was frustrating to watch, but on the other hand, Juha did an excellent job, and he really enjoyed it, which was great to hear.”
“I had brief contact with Juha before the event, but not during. I wanted to let him do things his way. We had discussed the approach for the drivers, especially for Taka and Sami [Pajari]. Elfyn [Evans] is more focused on himself during events and doesn’t speak as much. So, it was just a matter of explaining the general situation, but Juha is very experienced and knows exactly what’s going on.”
With the next two WRC rounds overlapping with his European Historic Rally Championship (EHRC) commitments, Latvala won’t return to his role as team principal until Rally Italia Sardinia.
“It won’t be so bad for Spain and Portugal,” Latvala explained. “Yes, I’ll miss them, but I’ll be busy competing, so I’ll stay focused on what I’m doing. Of course, I’ll be checking in on the team between stages.”
Latvala kicked off his EHRC campaign with a dominant victory at Rally Costa Brava in his Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, marking a strong start to his historic rally season.