Toyota's new recruit for the World Rally Championship, Sami Pajariannounced that Marko Salminen He will be his co-driver during his first full-time season in Rally1 in 2025.
He spent the last three years working alongside Enni Malkonen, but that partnership ended after he won the WRC2 title at Rally Japan last month.
The 23-year-old Finnish driver said that at this stage of his career it was “the best I could do” before moving to Rally1 full-time, having already contested three races this year.
Pajari has now announced that His compatriot Salminen will join him in the car by 2025 and that both will drive together at the Monza Rally Show this weekend.
In a social media post, Pajari said: “The contract is a dream come true for me and I am very grateful to and the team for giving me this incredible opportunity.”
“Many important people also helped me and made this possible. Thank you all.”
“I also know that this is where the hard work really begins to learn and achieve good results in the future. I am happy to announce that Marko Salminen will support me as co-driver.. You will see us competing at the Monza Rally Show this week. “It will be fun,” he added.
Sami Pajari, Enni Mälkönen, Printsport Toyota GR Yaris Rally2
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Salminen previously worked with Pajari in 2021when both were proclaimed Junior WRC champions.
The 46-year-old co-driver also competed at the highest level in next to Teemu Suninen with the M-Sport team in 2019 and recently worked closely with Toyota TGR Challenge Program drivers Yuki Yamamoto and Nao Otake.
Even though changing co-drivers is seen as a gamble for 2025, Pajari is confident it won't be a problem: “In 2018 I won the Finnish junior championship with a co-driver, the following year I won the championship principal Finn with another,” he said last week.
“In 2021 I won the Junior WRC with another co-driver and now the WRC2 championship with another fourth.”
“We have our reasons to believe that at this stage of my career, this is the best decision we can make.”
“We have had three very good seasons with Enni, we have achieved a lot together and this year we won the WRC2 title and now it is time to do something more,” he concluded.
Takamoto Katsuta, Marko Salminen, Ford Fiesta R5
Photo: McKlein / Motorsport Images
In this article
Tom Howard
WRC
Sami Pajari
Toyota Gazoo Racing
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