Young talent shines in WRC as Pajari and Sesks highlight next generation

Today's news of the 22-year-old WRC2 hotshot’s inclusion in the official Toyota Gazoo Racing team for next month’s Tet Rally Latvia offers another demonstration of how the FIA World Rally Championship ladder of progression is working.

In Poland, later this month we’ll see Mārtinš Sesks drive a non-hybrid powered Ford Puma Rally1 car for the first time, with the 24-year old stepping up for his home round of the WRC with the addition of the battery boost just three weeks later. That’s a fantastic story for the advancement of young drivers. And so is Pajari’s.

To have two of the sport’s most promising rising stars sitting centre-stage among the established heroes of the WRC in Liepāja will be something special.

Toyota’s team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has talked of how Pajari followed the prescribed route to the top perfectly.

He won the FIA Junior WRC title in 2021, stepped up to Rally2, won his maiden WRC2 round at home on Secto Rally Finland last year and is now challenging for this season’s WRC2 crown. News of his latest step came on the back of a sensational Rally Italia Sardegna class win and sixth overall.

No wonder the Finns are smiling. They have a 23-year-old two-time world champion contracted for the WRC future and now they have Pajari lined up for what’s going to be a thrilling Latvian WRC debut – for driver and rally alike.