With eight world championship titles to his name, there are few better people in this world to deliver sage rallying advice than Sébastien Ogier.
Three wins in 2024 and Toyota’s biggest points haul of the season from a single driver means Ogier has also stepped up to become de facto team leader once more. And he’s taken the initiative in that unofficial role.
Takamoto Katsuta, dropped for Rally Chile in favor of Toyota’s young prodigy Sami Pajari, has had a tough time of late. Crashes from promising positions in Sweden, Portugal, Finland and on the previous round in Greece meant Katsuta is absent in Chile and won’t be back until Central European Rally in mid-October.
Ogier has been on the case to offer Katsuta some pointers of how to rebuild his confidence – even if that means dispensing some tough love.
Katsuta is sitting out this week's Rally Chile after a disappointing run of events
“I told him that in this moment, of course, it’s hard to take,” Ogier told DirtFish. “I think he’s not having the best time at the moment but he has to try to use that as a reset to come back on the next one. We all make mistakes.
“I also had been honest with him that on this rally, this one in Greece was…,” added Ogier, pausing for thought. “It was hard to forgive.
“You were in a position where you had good tires, you were in a good starting position. This one was one too many, so maybe sometimes a punch in the face helps us to restart.”
“I think nobody wants to put him down. That’s quite the opposite. We want him to really, let’s say, use the potential he had, and he has proved since now quite a while in terms of speed. So I think as a team now everybody will try to support him. I think you shouldn’t see it only as a punishment that he’s not here. I think there is really a wish for us as a team to help him to turn the thing around.
“There’s many drivers who’ve been in these situations, Think about Ott, all the setbacks he had at some points, and then still became world champion. Of course it’s tough, and mentally it will be a difficult one, but it’s in this situation that you get better. The first message I sent to Taka was: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so you have to look forward.”
Of all the drivers in the Toyota fold, it’s Katsuta and reigning world champion Kalle Rovanperä who are closest. Both live in Finland and spend time together away from the stages – so Rovanperä has been on the phone to Katsuta plenty.
Katsuta has been receiving plenty of advice from his team-mates
“I talked with Taka many times after the decision and I think this is going to be a good chance for him to reset a bit,” was the world champion’s verdict.
“And I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. For sure he can learn a bit more about himself and what he has been doing in the past. If he can learn from those things, for sure he can make it as a positive thing, he can be stronger after.”
As much as Katsuta might be tempted to follow Rally Chile live, the one piece of advice Rovanperä gave was to do exactly the opposite: switch it off and forget about the WRC, at least for this week.
“I think he just needs to really reset, have time off, not keep working all the time more and more, because at some point it’s too much,” said Rovanperä.
“You need to always relax. Rally is a mental game. He knows how to drive fast, so he also needs to know how to relax. I think that’s the biggest thing I told him. Take a few beers and enjoy life for one weekend without rally.”
Elfyn Evans meanwhile backed Katsuta to make the most of his unexpected break.
“Of course Taka will bounce back,” he said. “He’s shown a lot of potential this year.
“He has the full support of everybody behind him and yeah I’m sure good times will come for him.”
