It all started with a joke – fitting, really, given how much fun the two of them continually have on World Rally Championship events. The fact they’ve proven to be ultra-competitive too simply sweetens the deal.
Thanks to Jari-Matti Latvala’s effervescent desire to drive, Juho Hänninen’s eWRC profile has continued to grow – albeit on the opposite side of the car.
Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion in 2010, Super 2000 world champion in 2011 and then European Rally champion in 2012, Hänninen is unquestionably a world-class rally driver; practically unbeatable when strapped into a Fabia S2000.
Opportunities with M-Sport Ford (2013), Hyundai (2014) and a near-full season with Toyota (2017) beckoned for the Finn, but never with the same success he had enjoyed in a screaming Škoda.
Hänninen won three titles in three years when driving a Škoda Fabia S2000
A one-off outing in Sardinia 2019 to enhance the Yaris WRC’s development looked to be it for Hänninen’s WRC career, only for Latvala to pick up the phone and introduce him to a rallying’s so-called ‘silly seat’.
On both the 2023 and 2024 editions of Rally Finland, the pair have stolen the show with their entertaining relationship – Latvala’s infectious passion mixed with Hänninen’s dry wit creating a combination that’s worked for the media, but more importantly on the special stages too.
In the wake of their run to second place in WRC2 (and sixth overall) in a GR Yaris Rally2, DirtFish caught up with Hänninen to learn more about his relationship with Toyota team principal Latvala and his own shifted role as a co-driver.
How it all began
Between them they have 267 WRC starts as drivers, but now three as a competing crew. It’s a relationship that has stood the test of time, as it stretches back to Hänninen’s fourth ever WRC start 18 years ago.
Latvala and Hänninen first competed against each other in 2006. Latvala (pictured) won with Hänninen second
“The very first time when we were competing together in the same class was 2006 Rally New Zealand in Group N, it was the Production Cup,” Hänninen tells DirtFish.
“Maybe not so many people know what was the Production Cup! But it was called that name and we were fighting there in the Group N [cars] – he had a Subaru and I had a Mitsubishi and we had a really good fight over there.
“From there we slowly grew closer. In 2009/10 when I was doing a bit more rallies we were more together. But at the end basically [we got particularly close in] ’17 when we were team-mates.”
The two Finns, along with Esapekka Lappi, both drove for Toyota that year as it re-entered the WRC after an 18-year hiatus, but never expected to actually compete in the same Toyota.
“Yeah it all started a bit like a joke! It was just before Rally GB weekend,” Hänninen remembers, “the weekend before and he was planning to do a rally with a Celica and he didn’t have a co-driver.
“Then it was just a bit of a joke of ‘should I go’ and then OK I can go. From there it started.”
And so Latvala and Hänninen lined up together to start the 2017 Peurunkaralli – just one week before they would be competing against one another in the WRC. It proved to be the first of 22 rallies (so far) the pair would do together.
Hänninen went from co-driving rookie to WRC2 podium finisher in just seven years
“I remember really well I didn’t have any idea how to write his notes or anything and when we did the recce I didn’t have a watch, so I borrowed his watch and it was quite like starting from basics,” Hänninen says.
“His notes were quite different to what I’m used to, so in one stage once I looked at the road, I looked at the notes again and I just said to Jari-Matti ‘honestly I don’t have any idea where we are’!
“That’s how it started and it was already fun from there, and then after that we have done quite a lot of historic rallies plus these two Rally Finlands.”
Why it works so well
This was never in Hänninen’s plan, but becoming a co-driver is not being viewed as a new career path. The only reason Hänninen has joined Latvala in the cockpit is because of their friendship out of it.
“I have known Jari-Matti for a long time and we are friends together,” he says. “I know that I can help him and support him and it’s more like from that side, like a friendship.
Latvala insisted on having Hänninen alongside him in Finland earlier this month
“[For example] Rally Finland I gave him a few options because there are these junior guys I’m working with, and I said I would basically need to be with the boys. But Jari-Matti said ‘no no, you need to be with me’ and then I gave him a few options but he said ‘no, no I need you’ so OK I came.
“But it’s funny with him, you know how he is! I said to Jari-Matti before Rally Finland that if I’m not fully wrong we both would have real work to do this week! I am helping the Challenge Program guys Yuki [Yamamoto] and Hikaru [Kogure] and he said ‘yeah yeah yeah you can talk with them on the road sections’,” he laughs.
“When it comes to him driving, nothing else matters, it’s so funny. But at the same time last year, this year actually [as well] it has been quite a lot of fun so that’s nice that he has been feeling relaxed.”
The strength of Latvala and Hänninen’s bond has been obvious to anyone who has followed either of the last two Rally Finlands. From disconnecting the intercom when not wanting to hear Latvala’s thoughts, or imitating his famous wrist warm-up on the road section and dead-pan analysis of Latvala’s driving, it’s clear Hänninen is having great fun.
But keeping it jovial has been a deliberate tactic in order to get the best out of Latvala.
“As we all know Jari-Matti as a person and as a driver, he’s quite emotional and in a way sensitive so I’m just trying to keep it more relaxed and nothing serious,” Hänninen explains.
“OK in the stages we are working and doing the work there and this year really trying to do our best but all the rest between the stages it’s just keeping him as relaxed as possible.
“As we know and we have seen in the past that sometimes it’s slightly narrow window where Jari-Matti is operating during the rallies, so we keep it there.
“Last year before Rally Finland when we went there with Rally1, I said to Jari-Matti ‘remember how you look from the outside to the people, to the media you have to be happy and smiley and relaxed otherwise we are looking completely idiots if we are really taking it seriously!'” Hänninen adds.
“And last year he didn’t and this year [too], so I’m in a way positively surprised about him on these rallies.”
No desire to keep driving
Although his professional driving career is over, Latvala cannot keep himself out of the driving seat – hence Hänninen’s new vocation as his navigator.
But that feeling isn’t shared from both members of the crew.
Hänninen is content holding the notebook rather than a steering wheel
Although he played a pivotal role in developing Toyota’s Rally2 car, and has still been driving this season in a test and development capacity, Hänninen hasn’t driven a rally competitive since 2021. But he’s completely OK with that.
“I can’t say maybe missing the competition but I still like the competition, but it’s enough for me when I’m in the co-drivers seat so it’s enough for me,” Hänninen says.
“I don’t need to be a driver anymore, I’m honest to myself that it’s too long time ago. Something like that [feeling of competition] I’m getting for myself also for those events [as a co-driver].”
But that doesn’t mean to say he isn’t still competitive.
“This year in Rally Finland, as I knew before the rally since the first test run it was confirmed we will be fighting for the top positions, so there I really wanted to get the good result and was a bit fed up when some trouble came for us and not for others!” Hänninen says.
“And you know I was really getting into that mood as well. So it was nice to see.”
Will there be a trilogy?
As this feature is published, Latvala is currently competing on the Lahti Historic Rally but without Hänninen by his side. Instead, Janni Hussi has taken his place in the Celica ST165.
Latvala and Hänninen have done the last two Finlands, and Latvala has already spoken about 2025
“I said to Jari-Matti my mental recovering has barely even started after Rally Finland, so no chance to be [in the car this weekend],” Hänninen laughs.
“And Janni was actually… I asked her about this, and she was so pumped. And I said ‘OK, the place is yours, you will go there’ and she’s really motivated and wants to learn and see so I said ‘with this guy, you will see a lot, no worries about that! This will be an eye-opening experience I guarantee.’
“So it’s nice that they both are quite excited so I think it might work together, and hopefully Janni will be also next year there with Jari-Matti.”
So what about Hänninen? Will he be joining Latvala for a third Rally Finland in a row in 2025?
“Let’s see, was it the last one?” he teases.
“Last year was supposed to be the last one, this year OK now he said already before the rally that we have to come here next year because there is again another explanation or reason for him to drive,” Hänninen laughs.
“I think as long as someone will give him a car he will find some reason why he has to do it!”
