Lappi not afraid of uncertain WRC future

The two-time WRC rally winner is unsure when he will be back on the stages

Esapekka Lappi says he isn’t afraid by his uncertain World Rally Championship future as Hyundai continues to evaluate its driver options for its third car next year.

The two-time WRC rally winner confirmed that his future is yet to be determined with last weekend’s Rally Chile set to be his final event of the year with the Korean marque.

Last season, Lappi contested a full-time season with Hyundai before moving to a part-time programme, sharing the third car with Andreas Mikkelsen and Dani Sordo this season.

Hyundai has confirmed that Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak will continue in a full-time capacity next year, but its plans for its third car are yet to be announced.

Team principal Cyril Abiteboul has previously stated that team is exploring scenarios for its third car. M-Sport's Adrien Fourmaux has been linked with a move to Hyundai.  

Lappi has endured a season of highs and lows, claiming a second career win in Sweden, but has since scored 14 points from his appearances in Kenya, Latvia (DNF), Finland and Chile (DNF).

The 33-year-old admitted before the start of Rally Chile that he has had discussions with the team regarding his future and would be keen for another part-time season.

"If I could choose, I would do a similar programme to this year and maybe do a couple of events more," said Lappi. 

"This three-month break after Kenya was too much. If we could do a similar programme with better planning and better testing and without long breaks then yeah I think that could be really nice. 

"We have talked about it but nothing is decided and even if they [the team] still keep doing the shared third car it doesn’t mean that automatically I will be there but still I’m not afraid. I know if this stops then my life will be fine."

Lappi struggled to extract speed from his i20 N in Chile before ultimately retiring from the event while occupying eighth position after damaging the front of his car in the penultimate stage.

"It was tough and I didn’t plan for it to go like this. I wanted to be a bit faster this weekend. I didn’t expect to be in the top five but somewhere in between," he added.

"On Sunday the task was to attack to be in between the Toyotas and mix up the points but I didn’t have the speed. I really attacked the penultimate stage where I lost the bumper but in the end we were also quite useless, so not much positives from the weekend."

Lappi’s co-driver announces WRC retirement in Chile 

Should Lappi continue in the WRC next year, he will do so with a new co-driver after Janne Ferm announced his retirement from the championship in Chile.

Ferm has navigated for Lappi’s entire 90 WRC event career with the partnership beginning at Rally Finland in 2011. Since then the duo have scored wins in Finland in 2017 and in Sweden this year, as well as the 2016 WRC2 title.

"I need to thank Janne for 15 seasons together. We were both rookies when we started and we climbed up the hill to be professionals together, and now this journey comes to an end," said Lappi.

"I’m sure we still sit together in a rally car, but not professionally. He has been the loudest laugher of the team – you might not see him, but you can hear him from very far away. We will miss his jokes and sense of humour."

Ferm had planned to retire from WRC competition at the end of last season before Lappi convinced the 44-year-old to continue for this year’s part-time campaign.

"It was already last year [I thought about it] but then Esapekka asked if it was OK if we did a part-time season. But now it is time to move away," said Ferm. 

"I love the sport and I love the people around it. At the moment I have no plans I will chill out for the moment and then we will see. 

"There has been plenty of key moments in my career, for sure everyone is saying 2017 Rally Finland, but I have to say when I met Esapekka for the first time. After that we have been in a marriage for 15 years. The marriage is not ending but we are living separately," he joked.