“Does everything always go smoothly in life?”

Sami Pajari admired the Hans Laine memorial award. PASI LEISMA

For Sami Pajar the Hans Laine Memorial Prize was awarded on Wednesday.

The circular prize awarded by AKK has previously decorated, for example Keke Rosberg’s, Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen edge of the fireplace.

The commemorative award for Laine, who died in the Nürburgring fire in 1970, has naturally also passed through the hands of all the big rally stars.

Having won the honor last year Kalle Rovanperän after that, it will now pass to the 23-year-old from Lahti.

But is it a problem that the award has now been shared with both Pajar and his map reader from last season Enni Mälkönen?

– Our relationship has always been good – and still is. In fact, we need to talk to Enni about whose trophy cabinet this will be taken to. Or should we take shifts, Pajari says.

Huge media frenzy

You wouldn’t believe it if you had followed the drama created between the two only through publicity. Pajari feels that the card change did not have the ingredients for the media frenzy at the end of the year.

– It really blew up in the public eye. We ourselves had no problem at any point. The matter was already known before the last competition.

Kuski emphasizes that the spectacle that developed from the news surprised him more than once.

– I didn’t think there was anything unclear about it. We are fine.

Pajari finally chose a 46-year-old alongside him Marko Salminen. An experienced karttur brings a dose of calmness to the cabin, which is certainly needed after the media frenzy at the end of the year.

– Let’s play a thought game: does everything in life always go smoothly? You can always mess around and you could always do things differently, Pajari formulated his own view of his responsibility.

Experience from Monte

The one who died at only 25 years old Hans Laine life ended with Porsche’s fatal aerial flight and the ensuing sea of ​​fire before the career of the top-talented track driver could even properly begin.

Pajari is now itself on a big watershed. The jump to become a professional driver of Toyota’s WRC team requires a firm belief in one’s own abilities and a thick skin to tolerate possible failures.

In the opinion of many, the young man from Lahti put unnecessary additional pressure on himself by changing karttur after a successful rally year.

– I don’t think of it as such. We already drove in Monza in December in a rally with a new map reader. Aren’t the doubts cleared already at that point?

Pajari – with Mälkönen – also drove Monte last year in the WRC2 version of the Yaris. Then he was the only Finnish driver in the entire event.

However, the Finnish junior ran the route outside of the actual World Cup series. Thus, no performance goals interfered with the going.

Now, the first career Monte Carlo in the first division rally cannon is ahead. At the same time, the result targets are set from Japan.

– There is not an infinitely big difference between them. Of course, every car has its own things. However, Monte is such a special race that it is good to have some experience there.

“Great recognition”

In the final results of the small class of 2024, Pajari was fifth with 4.46.5 winners (Yohan Rossel) behind.

Now, getting a similar result with the big boys seems like an unnecessarily hard goal.

– I keep in mind who is up against: Rovanperä, Sébastien Ogier, Ott Tänak, Thierry Neuvilleit features four world champions. The class is extremely hard.

– The season starting now is more about gathering experience. I don’t think there will be wins or a large number of podium places. Sure, it’s a plus if they come, but I don’t necessarily go get them.

The World Rally Championship starts with the Monte Carlo classic race two weeks from now on Thursday.

It’s probably just that if Pajari wants to get yet another mortgage on Hans Laine’s round prize, there should be a reason for the result level to remain high.

– This is a great recognition. When you look at that list of names, it’s really great that you can enter it yourself with your own name, concludes the reigning world champion of the WRC2 class.