Understanding Suninen’s sudden WRC exit gamble

In a matter of weeks Teemu Suninen has gone from being considered a candidate to retain his World Rally Championship drive at M-Sport for 2022 to quitting the team with immediate effect.

It's been some turnaround but in many ways Suninen's announcement of his immediate departure from M-Sport, the team he has represented since 2017, late last Friday evening perfectly epitomises his turbulent 2021 campaign. It is a move that has thrown yet another curveball into a WRC silly season that is rapidly gathering momentum.

It’s not unheard of for drivers to quit teams mid-season. But when it does happen, it’s still a shock and even more so when on paper it appears a gamble that is difficult to understand.

Suninen’s WRC future has been a recurring topic this year, with the Finn constantly facing questions about 2022 and seemingly under pressure to perform from the word go in January's Monte Carlo Rally. It was an event where the pressure cooker heat dial was turned up, as a huge crash on the opening stage of the season ruled him out of the event.

Before delving into the present, it is important to look at Suninen’s season before analysing his decision to quit. The 27-year-old headed in to 2021 after finishing second full WRC campaign in 2020 a strong seventh overall, having scored his third career podium with a third in Mexico. However, the harsh commercial realities inflicted by COVID-19 meant a third full-time campaign was simply not possible at the British squad.

Teemu Suninen, Mikko Markkula, M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC

Photo by: M-Sport

Suninen was left with a partial campaign as M-Sport elected to scale down its programme from three WRC entries to two, and focused its reduced resources on developing its new hybrid Rally1 Ford Puma for the 2022 WRC rule reset.

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Gus Greensmith was handed the only full-time seat, leaving Suninen to share the second car with rising star Adrien Fourmaux - the pair switching between M-Sport’s WRC2 and WRC Fiestas during the season.

To further complicate Suninen’s campaign, he started the year with a different co-driver - again caused by COVID as the financial complications wrought by the pandemic compelled Jarmo Lehtinen to take up a management role at the Toyota WRC team, instead of co-driving, to ensure a steady income.

Suininen therefore faced the prospect of starting the year by rekindling the relationship with his former co-driver Mikko Markkula, whom he paired with from 2015-2018, while contesting a partial season that was always going to be pressure-filled. There was huge expectation to deliver results to satisfy the team, but also to secure his own future, while constantly switching between WRC2 and WRC machinery.

A return to the WRC car at Sardinia was one to forget for Suninen as a roll on the opening stage - his second Stage 1 crash of the season - ruled out any chance of a strong finish

After that Monte Carlo crash, Suninen would finish eighth at Arctic Rally Finland, while Fourmaux impressed on his full WRC debut in the same car with fifth in Croatia. This he followed by a sixth in Portugal, further increasing the pressure further on Suninen to perform.

A return to the WRC car at Sardinia was one to forget for Suninen as a roll on the opening stage - his second Stage 1 crash of the season - ruled out any chance of a strong finish. Again, Fourmaux continued to impress by finishing fifth at the Safari Rally, where he recorded his first WRC stage win.

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Dogged by mechanical issues, Suninen finished sixth at July’s Rally Estonia before retiring from last month’s Rally Ypres in the team’s WRC2 Fiesta, in what we now know to be a final appearance for M-Sport this season, and maybe the remainder of his career.

Teemu Suninen, Mikko Markkula, M-Sport Ford WRT, Ford Fiesta Rally2

Photo by: M-Sport

With further appearances planned, the first a WRC2 outing at Greece’s Acropolis Rally before a WRC entry on home soil in Finland, Suninen decided to call it quits.

“It is time for us to say goodbye to M-Sport,” he said in a statement. “I'm grateful that I had the chance to be one of the WRC team drivers for several years. It has been a journey full of learning with some great moments.

“However, nothing lasts forever, and we have now decided it's time to go on to new challenges.”

The timing of such a sudden statement is curious given M-Sport’s team principal Richard Millener indicated in July that Suninen was very much an option for the team as it plans to increase its WRC fleet back to three in 2022 with its newly developed Puma.

“All three of the drivers that we have in terms of Gus, Adrien, and Teemu all have good potential and if we stayed as we were then I still wouldn’t be disappointed,” he said when asked about the team’s driver line-up options.

Even prior to last month’s Rally Ypres, Millener maintained that Suninen was still in the mix, but in an interesting twist, the team is yet to acknowledge the end of its driver’s five-year tenure through any form of statement or social media post.

“The reason we are still running Teemu in the rallies is there is obviously a discussion to be had whether we use him for next season or not,” Millener said when asked about Suninen’s future in Belgium. “If it was clear we were not going to be, then we would stop altogether.”

Teemu Suninen, Mikko Markkula, M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC

Photo by: M-Sport

So what does this mean for Suninen’s WRC future?

Clearly he is a talented young driver with plenty of potential to be successful in a settled environment. But quitting a team mid-season is a bold statement and a huge gamble if the driver doesn’t have a plan or move lined up for next year.

Seeing out the season could provide valuable appearances to advertise services to rival teams, which suggests that perhaps Suninen already knows where his future lies. His departure statement did end with the intriguing line of “it’s time to move onto new challenges.”

The 2022 WRC driver market is still very much open for business but that in itself may have prompted the decision to cut ties with M-Sport. Fourmaux appears nailed on to be retained by the Ford outfit, having carried out the bulk of the testing and development work with the new Puma. Hyundai’s Craig Breen has also been linked to a drive with M-Sport, while the team has held preliminary talks with the WRC’s greatest, nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb regarding a possible comeback. The team has openly said it has been investigating several options to complete its driver line-up for next year.

There is of course the option of returning to WRC2, a move taken up by former WRC regulars Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen as they bid to reignite their careers. The latter is also among the many candidates that have held talks with M-Sport regarding 2022 drives

While Suninen is obviously out of the running at M-Sport, he has been linked to a possible switch to Toyota, who appears set to retain Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanpera and so-called ‘B team' driver Takamoto Katsuta for 2022. Earlier this season, the Toyota WRC boss Jari-Matti Latvala named the Finn as a potential option for its third car as seven-time champion Sebastien Ogier looks set to scale back his commitment to a partial campaign next year.

However, former M-Sport, Citroen and Toyota driver Esapekka Lappi has emerged as the favourite for this role, with the 2017 Rally Finland winner’s odds shortening further after confirmation that he will rejoin the team for October’s Rally Finland in a fifth Yaris entry.

Hyundai is also yet to secure its driver line-up despite being the first to kick off the silly season, announcing contract extensions with star drivers Thierry Neuville and 2019 world champion Ott Tanak. Like Toyota, the third car remains unclaimed. This season it has been split between the experienced Dani Sordo and Breen.

Esapekka Lappi, M-Sport Ford WRT

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Sordo was linked to Toyota earlier this season too and the experienced Spaniard is keen to extend his stay in the WRC. A loyal servant at Hyundai, there is every chance he could retain his partial season role and perhaps share that with Oliver Solberg, son of 2003 champion Petter Solberg, who appears to be in the frame for a possible graduation. Team boss Andrea Adamo has confirmed the driver has a contract in place with the team but was tight-lipped and refused to rule out a step up to WRC for the 19-year-old.

WRC seats are extremely coveted and this season limited to just 10 drivers, although FIA rally director Yves Matton recently told Autosport that he believes there could be as many as 12 entries during 2022 when the WRC ushers in its new hybrid era. He also indicated that there has been interest from privateers which could provide another avenue for Suninen to exploit should the required backing is secured.

Matton has also suggested an idea that would help encourage manufacturers to enter a fourth entry, devoted to promoting young drivers, that would score manufacturers points although this appears to be a concept not for the immediate future.

There is of course the option of returning to WRC2, a move taken up by former WRC regulars Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen as they bid to reignite their careers. The latter is also among the many candidates that have held talks with M-Sport regarding 2022 drives.

On paper, the options seem limited for Suninen in WRC for next year. But, as ever, silly seasons are just that. Maybe the young Finn has something up his sleeve...

Teemu Suninen, M-Sport Ford WRT

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images