In a field south of Kosmo, Esapekka Lappi patiently and methodically picked up the pieces of his broken Hyundai i20 N Rally1. He made a pile at the back of the car. Friday morning hadn’t been kind.
After staring at them for a moment or two, he crouched down next to the driver’s door. It was a moment of reflection, contemplation and consideration. Not one to be interrupted.
We waited. He went on the phone. He came off the phone. Seeing DirtFish, he smiled the thinnest of smiles. And started talking.
The explanation: “We hit the tree with the rear-right and then the front-left as well. We were spinning around.
“I guess quick analyze would be that on the braking, I touched the brake and I lost the rear on the braking because it’s a short corner; fairly fast but short corner. So immediately, when I touched the brake pedal I started to slide and I think I was maybe too much on the edge of the road.
“It was a little bit like braking on paint in Formula 1, on the edge. I have no other explanation why, as I lost it already very early.”
A brace of second fastest times had moved the #4 Hyundai up the order to third overall going into that fateful fifth stage. Might that have been a cause? Not at all. The speed was coming comfortably.
“Yeah,” he said, when that theory was put forward by DirtFish, “I feel exactly like that. We were very surprised about the times we had yesterday already and this morning as well, but yeah it all came very naturally all the time.
“So yeah, I’m also very surprised what actually happened.”
Four Fridays earlier, we’d found Lappi sitting on a log after he rolled his i20 on the opening stage in Chile.
A couple of months before that there was Finland and another day one shunt.
Three from four doesn’t make for great reading and nobody knows that better than EP.
That’s the narrow focus. Widen things a little bit and you’re staring at a driver who landed into a team via a move which he didn’t really see coming himself. Learning a fourth new car in five seasons, Monte wasn’t exactly a ripper. He was wary of predicting too much more for Sweden, then went out and smashed it – running third until a delaminated tire speared him into a snowbank.
One better in México, he led at the end of Friday. Then backed it into an electricity pole on Saturday morning. Did the head drop? Not a bit of it. Instead, three podiums in four rallies and who knows what might have been for Safari, had his Hyundai not developed an insatiable appetite for propshafts in Kenya.
After another podium in Estonia, then came Finland and the start of that much less desirable three from four.
What are we looking at here? Is it the end? Not a bit of it.
Can he come back from this? Of course he can. Lappi’s a world-class driver and rallying’s rollercoaster ride is as old as rallying itself.
Will he come back from it? I don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody knows. But he definitely has the capacity to be back on the podium. And the top step.
Does he have a world championship in him?
I don’t think so. He came from a part-program last year and it looks very much like he’s headed for a part-program next year. To wear the crown, you need to build the experience year-on-year-on-year – preferably with the same manufacturer and in a set of circumstances which allow familiarity to breed confidence and comfort.
Since 2017, the longest Lappi has stayed with the same team at the sport’s top flight is two years. I’m not sure he’s ever had the chance to truly grow into a team and into a title-challenging role.
And since he watched his countryman Kalle Rovanperä develop into a world champion, I think it’s reshaped his thinking about his own title-winning prospects.
I talked to EP about this last year and the honesty with which he approached the subject was one of the highlights of my career. That might sound odd, but to have a driver of his standing willing to open up and bare their soul in the fashion he did was humbling.
“I don’t feel I’m that fast anymore…” was the takeaway line from this piece.
That was last year. Much as I thought jumping ship to Hyundai was a mistake this season, I think it’s a move which has helped him find his mojo again. 2023-spec Lappi is, for me, a faster driver. Maybe not than ever, but definitely than last year.
What’s next for Lappi then? Where now?
Well, Japan, obviously. But beyond that, should he come back and charge into another season, chase wins and lobby his demand and desire for a full-time 2025 seat?
Yes. If he wants to.
The absolute priority for me is to see him smile again. And to smile he needs to walk his own walk. If that’s a walk that takes him away from the WRC then that’s our loss, but he’s a man who totally gets life outside of the sport.
It makes me laugh to listen to people who question a driver’s desire to put family first. Priority number one for a team, surely, has to be a happy and contented driver. Get them in that frame of mind, by whatever means necessary, and the performance will follow – providing the driver has the talent.
Lappi has the talent.
I so want this guy to succeed, but more than that I want him to succeed by his own definition of success.
