Eight months ago, Enni Mälkönen had swapped her intercom for a podcast microphone. On DirtFish’s SPIN, The Rally Pod, she made her rallying ambitions clear.
Speaking with fellow WRC co-drivers Reeta Hämalainen (navigator for Emil Lindholm) and Janni Hussi (who’ll sit alongside Jari-Matti Latvala in the European Historic series next year) she spelled out her ambition: she wanted to become World Rally champion in a Rally1 car.
“Also my goal is something bigger than winning the championship only for myself,” she explained on the podcast. “I hope that I can – or we all could – break this glass ceiling and show all those little girls around the world that they can be whatever they want and there’s no-one who can say what they could be or what they could not.”
With that in mind, last Sunday is potentially tinged with a bittersweet taste. Mälkönen joined her compatriot Hämalainen in becoming WRC2 champion – but it was also announced that she and Sami Pajari would part ways at the end of the season.
Mälkönen had co-driven Pajari on his three outings in a Rally1 car in Finland, Chile and Central Europe – but for 2025 someone else will be sat in the passenger seat of Pajari’s GR Yaris Rally1.
It was a decision that Mälkönen hadn’t been expecting.
“As you know, I will no longer be working as Sami’s co-driver,” said Mälkönen on an Instagram post. “Sami and I have had big dreams together, we’ve put in the hard work and achieved them. Sami’s decision to make a change has taken me by surprise and I’m understandably very sad about it. This was not the decision that I wanted. And for clarification: I have of course known about Sami’s decision before today.
“I have always done my best and together we had great achievements; 9 wins, 14 podiums and WRC2 championship. I have dedicated over 10 years of my life to rallying and I hope and believe that my journey towards the top continues. When one door closes another one opens.
Mälkönen made three Rally1 starts in 2024 alongside Pajari
“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Printsport and Toyota for their unwavering support and belief in me during this past year. These have been the best days of my life. It has been a great honor to work with you. I wish Sami all the success in the future!”
Pajari, faced with a life-changing opportunity at Toyota next season, has opted to go in a different direction. Such a significant change as swapping co-drivers is a big call to make on the eve of his debut as a factory full-timer – but he explained it’s a process that has worked for him in the past.
“Well, I need to think this way,” Pajari told DirtFish. “In 2018 I won a Junior Finnish Championship that was with another co-driver [Pertti Pajari, his father]. Then I had a 2019 Finnish Championship victory again with another co-driver [Antii Haapala]. 2021 Junior World Rally Championship with another co-driver [Marko Salminen]. And now 2024 winning the WRC2 with Enni after a really nice three years of cooperation, but it’s like a fourth overall title victory for me and it’s together with a fourth different co-driver.
“In my case, together with our team, it has been always the plan to look one year at a time where we see the areas where to improve, what is the best for the career at each point of my career. Maybe in different points of your career you need different kind of things and after a really nice result during the last three years, this is something what we have our reasons for and why we decided to do this.”
Pajari's decision was his own and unrelated to Toyota, according to team principal Jari-Matti Latvala
Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala indicated that Pajari’s split with Mälkönen was his own decision and not made by Toyota.
“Of course it’s always a little bit risky choice when you change the co-driver, especially when you have had a very successful season,” Latvala told DirtFish. “But it’s a chemistry thing which needs to work between the driver and the co-driver. And as a team, you can never decide who is the co-driver.
“It’s always the driver’s decision. He needs to have the plan and he knows who he needs in the car to support him. So in that sense now Sami has decided that he needs somebody else.”
Pajari’s new co-driver for the 2025 season will be announced at a later date.
