There is a trick among rally and probably other motorsport crews where the driver is put in the faster car for a short time to get the grips of increased speed. The result is that the driver, having overcome the mental and physical speed barriers, increases his speed in his usual, slower car. Nowadays, this is mainly used by Rally3 drivers testing faster – Rally2 – machines.

In a very short time, there have been these kinds of changes in the top class – WRC and ERC. Although the intention of putting Rally2 drivers in Rally1 cars was completely different, it was interesting to see the result. We talk about Mārtiņš Sesks’s performance at ERC Rally Estonia with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 after WRC Rally Poland with the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid and Sami Pajari’s performance in WRC Latvia with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 after testing the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid for a few days in Finland.

The result was quite different from what you’d normally expect. Mārtiņš was struggling in Estonia and Sami was also far away from his main rival Oliver, at least at the beginning of the WRC Latvia rally. Why were these guys struggling with their usual cars after driving a faster car? The answer may lie in grip – not mechanical, but aerodynamic. One of the biggest differences between Rally1 and Rally2 cars is aerodynamics, and once drivers get a feel for how fast they can go in the corners with extra aerodynamic grip, it’s quite difficult to go back to the usual, mainly mechanical grip. This theory was also confirmed by Mārtiņš mentor Uldis Briedis, who said that driving the Rally1 car didn’t work well for the comeback with the Rally2 machine. At least it was better for Sami Pajari in Latvia, who was able to show really good times later on.