In another world, the fanfare would be fever-pitch.
The prospect of a home hero scrapping with the top dogs as the World Rally Championship journeyed to Gran Canaria a hope, but not a dream.
The man they call cohete literally rocketing his way to glory in a Rally1 car – an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 car to be precise.
But it’s not to be. Despite his best efforts, José Antonio Suárez will not be part of the Rally1 field next week. He won’t even start the rally at all.
Suárez spoke to DirtFish to explain why, and where his real priorities lie instead in 2025.
Why an M-Sport deal couldn’t be made
Suárez worked to try and drive a Puma Rally1, but simply didn't have enough money
Back in February, Suárez told the world – via Spanish media outlet Overall Media – that he would be on the start-line of Rally Islas Canarias in a Puma Rally1.
“Now we just need to test, see how things go and how I feel. But the warrior inside me is ready to go flat out,” he was quoted.
But speaking to M-Sport team principal Richard Millener in the service park at Rally Sweden, it was clear the team wasn’t so confident a deal was done.
“What I’ve read isn’t quite what I would say at the moment,” Millener told DirtFish. “There’s nothing agreed or guaranteed. But there is discussion.”
Discussion that Suárez confirms to DirtFish occurred as early as Rally Portugal last May.
“I promise you, I try like hell,” he says. “I started last year in Portugal, my first meeting [was] before everybody knows that Canarias will be in the World Rally Championship calendar.
“I started to speak and I started to work. I went to Portugal but finally, money is the money.”
Doing the translation from the EUR to GBP, Suárez simply didn’t have enough to secure the car.
"I don't put on fire my sponsor just for one rally. I would like to stay driving rally cars many, many years so I have to be clever in my stepsJosé Antonio Suárez
“I found a lot of money but it was not enough. You know, the difference between euros and pounds is not the same. It’s a big difference,” Suárez clarifies.
“It’s a little bit disappointing. I drove many times WRC cars, never a Rally1 but OK it’s what it is.”
Suárez says he ultimately needed to be “clever” and not jeopardize what he has in order to fund the Rally1 drive.
“I don’t put on fire my sponsor just for one rally,” he explains. “I would like to stay driving rally cars many, many years so I have to be clever in my steps.
“I arrived in one moment, I saw that the step is not really clever just for my fun or my own joy, so I stopped the idea and I will focus on the national championship.”
But he’s not giving up entirely.
“I could not arrive to an agreement with M-Sport, but let’s see in the future,” he says. “I will not put the dog on the floor. I will keep trying next season to do something, but now it’s a good holiday until June which is when my next rally is, so it’s not bad at all.”
Why he hasn’t entered Canarias at all
There was nothing to gain by entering WRC2 in Canaries, says Suárez'
If Suárez can’t secure himself a Rally1 for Canaries – his nation Spain’s first WRC event for three years – why not go there in his normal Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 instead?
Suárez’s answer is simple: what changes if he succeeds in WRC2?
“I have to be responsible with the manufacturers who are supporting me,” he expands, “so, OK, I can break for a big reason, I have the agreement of Michelin, of Škoda, of everybody but for a big reason – not for a Rally2.
“And finally, what’s happening if I win the WRC there in Canaries? Nothing, it’s normal.
“I always think about this: OK, José, you go to Canaries, you win, what will change in your life? Nothing.
“It’s different if I go to Finland and I win in Finland, this will be different. It’s like if one Finnish driver comes to Canaries and wins, ‘oh, f***, this guy is interesting!’ For a Spanish driver winning in Spain, it’s a normal thing.”
Focus on the Spanish Superchampionship
Success at home is the priority in 2025
Instead, Suárez’s full attention is on the Spanish Superchampionship – which he has won both of the first two rounds of this year.
“Our team is focused on the Spanish championship. Also, our sponsor market is in Spain. So our target is the Spanish championship,” he says.
“Also, the manufacturers’ championship for Škoda. Now, we are in a really good position as we won the first two rallies, and I hope to win some more this year.”
Suárez’s strong start to the year is following a trend, as his two previous titles came in 2021 and 2023. So 2025 is the next year in that sequence…
“My boss tells me when the year finishes in an even number, it’s always problems. And when it’s an odd number it’s OK. So, next year, we will stay at home to work on the next year!” he laughs.
How that vision complicated his ERC podium
Suárez may miss out on WRC but has already competed internationally with a podium finish at the opening round of the European Rally Championship – Rally Sierra Morena, which coincided with his national championship commitments.
That ultimately made it a tricky weekend for the 34-year-old, who had to juggle the desire to win the rally with securing top Spanish points.
Rally Sierra Morena was a successful, albeit complicated, weekend
Ultimately he did just that: took home maximum national points, and would have been second in the rally were it not for a slow puncture on the final morning.
“It was a good weekend, but it was hard because I have to do my job, which is to win the Spanish Championship,” Suárez explains.
“I have something in my pocket more to push, but finally I win money to win the Spanish Championship, not to try to win one ERC rally, so it was tough.”
He admits rally winner Nikolay Gryazin’s choice of medium tires for the opening loop was superior, but suspects he could have pushed the WRC2 driver harder if he had to.
“Probably a few years ago, I would have crashed the car,” Suárez says. “But now I am in a good position on my job, so I don’t want to lose my job and I take care about it.
“My relationship with Škoda is really strong now. We did a special car with my name, with the green color with only 100 units – I have to be respectful with them, with all their support. I have to be clever. I have to be.”
Clever ‘cohete’
Despite his bubbly personality and ‘cohete’ branding – something Suárez reveals he initially didn’t like because nobody knew his real name, but now enjoys from a marketing perspective – there’s a real shrewdness to the way the Spaniard is operating.
“Today you need to be a good driver and also you need to be good on marketing,” he says.
“I don’t want to be another sheep and I like to be different – it’s like I am, so for me it’s easy to be like I am.”
He very clearly has a strong perspective of his lot. His career comes first and foremost; some ultimate dreams – like a Rally1 drive – need to be laid to rest at times.
“I dream to be a rally driver since I was three, four years old. I reached it in Spain as a national driver so I don’t want to leave,” Suárez states.
“I was really close to touch the WRC when I was doing the Junior WRC but then finally this is an enterprise. I sit with myself and with my father and we thought about what to do, and it’s for that I went to Carlos Sainz to speak, to tell me: I just want one important person who will tell me what I do wrong.
Suárez (pictured here in 2016) was once chasing a WRC career, but is now content with a national one
“After that it was like a crack in my head and I started to work and it was nice to be in WRC with Peugeot and ERC with Peugeot, be second in Junior WRC after Elfyn [Evans].
“But not everybody is on WRC, and not everybody can live from rallies on a national championship, so now I can eat every day from the rallies.
“I can bring the food for my 10 cats and my three dogs from the rallies so that’s nice, and I have to be clever if I want to continue many years with this business.”
His legion of fans – as well as his furry friends – will be thankful for that.
