Esapekka Lappi is concerned that he cannot trust his testing data after his performance on the Monte Carlo Rally.
Ahead of his Hyundai debut, Lappi was feeling confident of a strong result on the season-opener of this year’s World Rally Championship season, having conducted some testing ahead of the event. However, the result was far from what he was expecting.
Lappi struggled for pace for the entire rally and could only manage a seventh-place finish, nearly four minutes down on the overall winning time.
A portion of that time loss was due to the fact that Lappi got a puncture on Saturday and lost hybrid on the powerstage, but moreover, he was concerned that his overall pace did not reflect the feeling he had when testing the car, and he’s now concerned about his pace for next month’s Rally Sweden.
When asked if the frozen gravel conditions of Sweden will make it an easier rally for him than Monte, Lappi said: “Hard to say because like I say I felt good last week as well after the test.
“I felt good in Finland on the test. But clearly, I was wrong on Tarmac so maybe I am wrong on snow as well.
“So, we need to see in Sweden where we are. I can’t judge now.”
It became clear early on to Lappi that, like team-mate Thierry Neuville, he had gone in the wrong direction on car setup for the event. The car was too soft for his liking, but he is confident he knows how to rectify that for future asphalt events.
“I would say the front axle. No, front and rear, both, so the car,” Lappi joked when DirtFish asked what the biggest thing Lappi needed to adapt to the car was.
“It’s just because it doesn’t feel bad at all.
“It’s just that I can’t be as fast as I would like to, and it’s about really small details what we need to change, what we need to try to find the small bits in every corner, let’s say.
“And this is the trickiest thing to find it, because the level is so high that you need to have a perfect one to be able to match the top times.”
But despite knowing what he needs to get more performance from the car, he’s no longer willing to predict what his future results might look like.
“I don’t want to say anything.
“I thought I was better here, and I was not, so for Sweden I have no idea.”
