“It’s a bit of a shame that it’s always the thing that people tend to remember,” he reflected.
“Like it doesn’t really mean much. Even if you know that you did some good bits here and there, it’s mainly just the result that people are always looking at.”
That was Sami Pajari after claiming the second podium of his World Rally Championship career at last weekend’s Rally Sweden.
And the Finn puts forward a strong point. While DirtFish will always dive deeper than the raw statistics, we cannot control the basic human instinct to remember the headline stat most and the details behind it less.
The only driver this seemingly doesn’t apply to is Mãrtiņš Sesks.
Sesks is rarely far from people's attention
Ever since the Latvian debuted in the Rally1 class two years ago, he’s commanded attention. I bet you can’t tell me where he finished at his home event in 2024; you’ll simply remember that he didn’t get the podium he deserved.
Perhaps it’s the fact Sesks only appears for half of the season, so it’s basically impossible for him to blend into the background. But the same thing applies to Saudi Arabia – everyone remembers that performance, not the DNF he put on the board.
What he really craves – after another rally in Sweden that didn’t go to plan results-wise – is just a clean weekend.
“Actually, I don’t remember a rally without problems,” he told DirtFish. “Yeah… I think the last was exactly a year ago. Sweden was the only rally without any issues. So yeah, they keep coming.
“Hopefully, there is some limit to them and we will start driving normally and everything will be as planned.”
Sesks’ claim is slightly inaccurate as Rally Estonia last year was more or less smooth (aside from a spin). But in Saudi Arabia he retired with an engine issue, his windshield fogged up in Finland, in Acropolis there was a fuel problem, Sardinia was marred by a dramatic high-speed crash and in Portugal he got a puncture that wrecked his weekend.
Last weekend’s Rally Sweden was a similar tale, as two front punctures on Friday’s first stage, then another on the next test, forced him out for Friday afternoon. A fastest stage time on Saturday was a nice boost, at least.
“We can take a few positives from this rally as well,” Sesks added. “From Saturday, and a few things from Sunday as well.”
But Sesks said his biggest lesson from the weekend was learning to roll with the punches.
Sesks next returns to the WRC in just under three months
“I think we’re learning how to swallow all these… yeah, like the bad bits,” he said “They’re not easy to swallow. But you’ll learn that and not really think too much about it. Of course you have to analyze – but just keep moving.”
The nature of Sesks’ program means he’ll now miss the next three WRC events (Safari Rally Kenya, Croatia and Islas Canarias) but will return for Rally Portugal in May.
He’ll then complete the same program as events as in 2025.
“I guess from experience it gets maybe a bit easier,” he said. “But still, with a limited program, you have fewer rallies to prove yourself. But yeah, I think that doing the same rallies as you did last year, I personally feel that it should help because I feel a bit calmer here in Sweden because I already knew something about what’s going to happen and how it’s going to look like.”
