Lappi: I’ve done enough for a drive in 2023
Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Esapekka Lappi feels he’s done enough this season to warrant a contract extension to drive a GR Yaris Rally1 into 2023.
The Finn is sharing a seat with eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier this season – an arrangement strongly rumoured to continue into next year. Ogier has already talked of his desire to tackle the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo with Toyota.
Lappi has started seven rounds of this year’s series and was on target for a fourth podium of the year before his Yaris was halted by a mechanical issue last time out at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece.
Despite that Saturday retirement, he bounced back to lift a point from the Wolf Power Stage and remains upbeat about his chances of being back in the car next season.
He said: “In the last few rallies, I think I have done everything I could to keep this seat. We were hired to bring some points for the team and I have done that, so I think when you are looking at it like this, I think we can continue.”
Much as Lappi would love a return to a full-time seat, he knows there’s no an abundance of opportunity in the service park.
“I would like to do more,” he said, “but this is the way it is. I knew it was like this when I started. I can feel the pace is getting better when I am driving more regularly, but now I have a holiday and will miss the next one [in New Zealand, where Ogier returns].”