But at the end of the Japan Rally, the former M-Sport engineer made a quick assessment of this year 2022, defending the performance of the Hyundai i20N Rally1.
“What a season…Really…All the journalists and other people, bashed us and the car for 5 months…
Yet, without the fantastic help of Compact Dynamics (supplier of the hybrid kit), Ott would have won in Sweden… and the Drivers’ Championship might not have been so obvious to Kalle.
Afterwards, let them all praise Toyota… Really? I think the Rovanperä factor was bigger than the Toyota factor! Ok, Seb also won… but he wasn’t 8 times world champion by accident! ! !
Then, following winning 3 consecutive rallies on 3 different surfaces, Finland, Ypres, Greece,…. I think a few people felt a little stupid for putting us down all the time…We did 1,2,3 in Greece too…
Of course, Ott’s party was ruined in Estonia… but I think we ruined both parties in Jyvaskyla and Toyota City as well.
Congratulations to Ott, Martin, Thierry, Martijn, Dani and Candido. Kudos to all the guys on the team who worked as a team.”