I can still remember the question, because all I could think was that it was a waste.
He may have left the team behind for a regrettable move to Citroën that preceded another move to M-Sport and a year on the sidelines, but Esapekka Lappi had found his way home.
Found his way back to Toyota.
He wasn’t delighted to be back, he was simply grateful. Joining him for an end-of-season media call last September (with Sébastien Ogier taking on the final three rounds of the year), Lappi looked relaxed – utterly content with life.
Showing no signs of wanting to move away again.
So why, I thought, was a fellow media colleague of mine asking Lappi if he’d be open to joining another team for 2023?
“No,” Lappi replied. “I don’t see any other options than Toyota.”
But more fool me.
Look where we are now – four rallies into Lappi’s tenure as a Hyundai driver.
It’s a move I clearly didn’t see coming, and to be honest I questioned the sense of it when it was announced too (much as I could understand the appeal of a full program vs a part-time one, Lappi was in real jeopardy of losing the new-found relaxed attitude Toyota had helped him develop).
But I’m happy to be proved wrong – twice. Because Lappi is, so far, making his Hyundai move work superbly.
Monte Carlo certainly wasn’t a reflection of what he could really do. Learning a new car (that Hyundai lifer Thierry Neuville wasn’t entirely happy with) on a rally he’s never professed to love, on what was also his first rally start in four months, was a considerable challenge.
A puncture-restricted eighth was the end result. Realistically nothing more could be expected.
But ever since, Lappi has impressed.
Seventh in Sweden may not seem particularly strong for a Scandinavian who had podiumed there the year before with his old team, but Lappi was a comfortable third before a delamination spat him into a snow bank and robbed him of several minutes.
México was clearly a disappointment from a results perspective too, but to be leading Sébastien Ogier in equal conditions overnight was a real statement of intent – and a massively encouraging marker of Lappi’s relationship with the i20 N Rally1 on gravel.
The big crash on Saturday had the dream crashing down, taking an electricity pole with it, but Lappi paid a heavy penalty for what was a small lapse in judgement.
Last month’s Croatia Rally was almost the polar opposite of México. The pace wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but on what was an extremely emotional and difficult weekend for everybody – but particularly Hyundai – Lappi kept his head to deliver a podium finish for his team.
Without the crash in México, Lappi would’ve been edging himself into this year’s epic title fight.
As it is, he’s likely to occupy an awkward middle ground this year – able to fight at the very front sporadically but not consistently, yet equally clear of the less experienced drivers like Takamoto Katsuta or Pierre-Louis Loubet.
And there’s every chance Lappi could be used as a pawn to support Neuville’s title tilt too.
That’s a shame, but Lappi has never yet been a title contender in the WRC. So the very fact it feels as if he’s on the cusp of that status shows he made the right decision in moving to Hyundai.
For as much as Lappi looked relaxed and happy in a Yaris, you could sense a growing frustration from him as the year went on that his WRC outings were all dictated by Ogier's calendar
Toyota was the perfect place for Lappi last year. Keen to see if he could slot back into the WRC after a troubled few years, Lappi immediately proved his worth with a podium first time out and then his first back-to-back rostrum finishes in Finland and Ypres.
He clearly began to register his own performances too. For as much as Lappi looked relaxed and happy in a Yaris, you could sense a growing frustration from him as the year went on that his WRC outings were all dictated by Ogier’s calendar.
Discussing this fresh from four rallies on the bounce in 2022, Lappi was asked if he had enjoyed being a part-time driver. And he was pragmatic about it (as always), admitting there are “two sides” to it and it was better for his family life.
But, and it was a big but: “Then on the other hand as we can see, and I felt as well, that when I got back to back races, now the last four in a row, it felt it influenced me that I can actually be sharper, a bit better every time I sit in the car.
“So in terms of that, yeah it would be nice to have more events because I’m sure the curve to be better would go ahead step by step all the time it seems and now it’s going to be a long break again if I can continue next year.”
It’s impossible to determine how Lappi’s season would be going had he remained at Toyota instead of Hyundai. A lot of the groundwork to his 2023 was laid down by an impressive 2022.
But with Ogier still contracted and Takamoto Katsuta a product of Toyota’s talent-breeding program, there was never going to be an opportunity of a full-time drive at Toyota.
Certainly not this year. So when Hyundai came knocking…
It’s to Lappi’s credit that he’s made it work though. There was plenty of risk involved in joining another new outfit with a different culture and environment to what he left behind, but Lappi’s never looked a more convincing prospect in the WRC (save for his electric start back in 2017). At least to me.
So that’s why Lappi’s ambitious target – “win for sure” – in Portugal feels absolutely believable.
Lappi’s just as fast as he’s ever been, but he’s never looked more sure of himself. And with a full program of rallies, and no expectation from his bosses to be a title contender, the pressure to perform is largely dictated only by the standards he and Janne Ferm set themselves.
Anybody that doubted Lappi’s decision to leave Toyota then (I’m looking squarely in the mirror here) has some rethinking to do.
Lappi, on the other hand, just has to keep doing what he’s doing, and that elusive second WRC win surely can’t be that far around the corner.
