Henri Toivonen

Henri Toivonen's Talbot Sunbeam Lotus

Toivonen's first season driving for a major car manufacturer's 'works' team was largely a trial year. He started the season by winning the Arctic Rally in January,[10] but only drove his Talbot Sunbeam Lotus in four selected World Rally Championship events. His exuberant driving style often led to crashes, and his results were often not representative of his pace.[11] In hopes of better results, the team partnered Toivonen with three different co-drivers during the season: Antero Lindqvist, Paul White and Neil Wilson.[4] At the 1000 Lakes Rally, Toivonen retired due to an accident during the 11th special stage.[12] At the next rally in Sanremo with Lindqvist, Toivonen finished fifth.[13] In late November, Toivonen, this time partnered by White, surprised both experts and spectators by winning the Lombard RAC Rally, over four minutes ahead of runner-up Hannu Mikkola.[14] Neither Toivonen nor Talbot were expected to be competitive in the rally.[15] In an interview published in Autosport three days before the rally started, Toivonen himself had not expected to challenge for the win:

I don’t think that I have done enough events to win the rally just by driving skill, for instance. If I win, it will be because I have a little bit of luck and some of the others have trouble. I mean, Hannu Mikkola knows the forests like the back of his hand so there is no use trying to drive to beat him. You have to wait for him to have trouble. Then you are in with a chance.[11]

At 24 years and 86 days, he remained the youngest driver to win a WRC event until his countryman Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22.[16] Latvala stated that "It's a super feeling, it's almost unbelievable. Henri (Toivonen) was one of my idols and secretly I've always wanted to beat his record as the youngest winner."[17] Over 20 years after the 1980 RAC, Paul White (nicknamed "Chalkie" by Toivonen)[18] commented that he still receives questions about the rally and Henri Toivonen. He noted that the Talbot team, run by Des O'Dell and 15 full-time personnel, was much smaller than other works teams and "had to draft in 'mercenary' mechanics to help."[19] Toivonen's results led to another year in the Talbot squad. In the 1981 season, he was signed up for a larger WRC programme and had a new co-driver, Fred Gallagher, who would later partner Juha Kankkunen and Björn Waldegård in a Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo.[20] Toivonen's rear-wheel drive Group 2 Sunbeam Lotus was now less competitive against the Group 4 cars and the all-wheel-drive Audi Quattro, but despite four retirements, the second places at Rally Portugal and Sanremo, as well as a fifth place at the Monte Carlo Rally, resulted in a seventh place overall in the drivers' world championship.[21] Together with more consistent teammate Guy Fréquelin, he brought Talbot a surprise manufacturers' title. He also competed in the last round of the British Open Rally Championship, the Audi Sport International Rally, and won the event.[4]

Rothmans Opel Rally Team's Opel Ascona 400

For the 1982 season, Toivonen switched to the Rothmans-sponsored Opel team, which was co-managed by David Richards.[22] Toivonen's teammates were Ari Vatanen, who had won the previous year's championship (with Richards as his co-driver), the 1980 and 1982 world champion Walter Röhrl and Jimmy McRae, the previous year's British Rally Champion and father of future rally star Colin McRae. In his Ascona 400 debut in Portugal, Toivonen surprised the event favourites by leading the rally before retiring five stages from the finish.[23] He competed in only four more WRC events, but finished on the podium twice, at the Acropolis Rally and at the RAC Rally.[7] In the European Rally Championship, he participated in four rallies, registering three podiums and one retirement. He also made a guest appearance in one round of the British Formula Three circuit racing championship, where he finished tenth driving a Ralt RT3.[4] In his Formula One test for March Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit, Toivonen was 1.4 seconds faster than the team's regular driver Raul Boesel.[24]

Toivonen driving the Manta 400

Toivonen continued with Opel into the 1983 season, now driving the Manta 400, which took advantage of the new Group B regulations. Although the Manta was a Group B car, it was underpowered against the likes of the Audi Quattro A2 and Lancia 037, which were controlling the world rally scene at the time. Toivonen achieved a win at the Manx International Rally, a round of the British Open Rally Championship and the European Rally Championship, in the Isle of Man, at his first attempt. He also finished first at the Mille Pistes rally in France, but the organisers decided to ban the Group B cars halfway through the event. Toivonen and his co-driver, Ian Grindrod, received only a consolation trophy.[4] In the World Rally Championship, he retired in three rallies, finished sixth at the Monte Carlo Rally and fourth at the Rallye Sanremo.[7] He also drove a Ferrari 308 GTB at the San Marino Rally, where he was co-driven by Juha Piironen for the first time. The pair retired from the event, but Piironen would become his main co-driver for the next two seasons, and later have a long and successful partnership with four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen.[25] In late October, Toivonen again competed on the circuits. This time he entered two sportscar races, driving a Porsche 956 for Richard Lloyd Racing in the European Endurance Championship. He only practiced the car at Imola and did not race, but in the next race at Mugello, partnered with Derek Bell and Jonathan Palmer, he finished third.[26]

Toivonen driving a Porsche 911 SC RS at the 1984 Mille Pistes

After a score of ten starts, two podiums, three other top six finishes and five retirements, Toivonen left Opel Team Europe for the 1984 season. He was linked to the lead drive at the Peugeot Talbot Sport, Peugeot's new factory World Rally Championship team, but eventually signed to drive a Porsche 911 SC RS for the Rothmans-sponsored Porsche factory team in the European Rally Championship. The team was run by Prodrive, a new motorsport group set up by David Richards, Toivonen's former boss at Opel.[27] His European season with Porsche turned out to be a success. He started with two retirements, a third and a second place, but went on to win five rallies in a row and led the championship from Italian Lancia driver Carlo Capone. As Toivonen had a contract with Lancia for the World Rally Championship, and Lancia boss Cesare Fiorio wanted Capone to win the European title, it was suggested that Fiorio might enter Toivonen in WRC events to keep him away from important ERC rounds.[28] However, Toivonen's title campaign ended in a back injury and a resulting enforced rest that was expected to take up to two months.[29] He missed several events and finished second in the championship behind Capone.

Toivonen's WRC contract with Lancia Martini consisted of five events. Fiorio stated that the team needed another top driver as "Audi will have four top drivers next year so it would be very difficult competing with only two."[30] Toivonen had his Lancia 037 debut in Portugal with very limited testing experience: "It has been snowing in Italy every time I have been to try this car, so I don't know its limits." However, similarly to his Opel Ascona 400 debut at the same event two years ago, Toivonen immediately took the lead and set several fastest stage times before retiring. This time the retirement was not caused by a broken clutch, but a mistake and a crash by Toivonen.[31] After a retirement also in Greece, he finished third in his home event, the 1000 Lakes Rally.[32] These three remained Toivonen's only WRC events of the season as his back injury forced him to miss the Sanremo and RAC rallies. Before Sanremo, Markku Alén re-signed with Lancia and Fiorio stated he wanted to sign Toivonen with a similar two-year contract, depending on the condition of his back and his contractual situation with Rothmans Porsche,[33] who had claimed Toivonen had already re-signed with them.[29] Toivonen chose to become a full-fledged Lancia driver for the 1985 season.

A factory team Lancia 037 Rally

The 1985 season started badly when Toivonen crashed his Lancia 037 into a brick wall at the Rally Costa Smeralda, in the European Championship, seriously injuring his back and breaking three vertebrae in his neck.[4] At the beginning of May, Lancia drivers Toivonen and Alén lost a friend and team-mate, when Italian driver Attilio Bettega crashed fatally during the fourth special stage at the Tour de Corse.[34] Toivonen made his comeback from his injuries at the 1000 Lakes Rally in August and finished fourth. He finished third at the next rally in Sanremo, his final event with the car. The 037 did not suit Toivonen's driving style[35] and had fallen well behind Audi and Peugeot in terms of performance, as it was rear-wheel drive and had only 325 horsepower (242 kW) compared to the 440 of Peugeot and 500 of Audi. It was replaced by the Lancia Delta S4 for the final event of the season: the RAC Rally. The Delta S4 had all-wheel drive and was both supercharged and turbocharged, the former increasing power in the middle of the engine's speed range and the latter boosting power at higher engine speeds.[36] The car could reportedly accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) in 2.3 seconds, on a gravel road.[37] The Delta S4 turned out to be a success. Toivonen won the rally and Alén finished second only 56 seconds behind.[38] Although Toivonen competed in only four world rallies in 1985, his results placed him career-best sixth overall in the championship.[39]

A Lancia Delta S4

The 1986 season started with a dominant win for Toivonen at the Monte Carlo Rally with new co-driver Sergio Cresto. Fellow "Flying Finns" Timo Salonen and Hannu Mikkola finished second and third.[40] Toivonen's father, Pauli Toivonen, had won the event 20 years earlier after ten cars, including the first four to cross the finishing line, were disqualified due to having non-standard headlights. The disqualification had caused an uproar and Prince Rainier of Monaco refused to attend the prize-giving ceremony.[41] Henri Toivonen's victory caused his father to comment "now the name of Toivonen has been cleared".[42] The Monte Carlo win made Toivonen the favourite for the title. However, at the Swedish Rally he retired from the lead due to an engine failure.[43] At the next rally in Portugal, Joaquim Santos lost control of his Ford RS200 on a special stage and plunged into the crowd. The accident killed three spectators and injured more than 30.[44] Toivonen along with all the other factory team drivers decided to withdraw from the event, but Lancia disapproved of the retirement.[35] Toivonen stated that "the Lancia team will not accept anything but a win."[35] During the Portuguese rally, Toivonen is often reported to have tested his Delta S4 at the Estoril circuit and to have set a fastest lap time that would have qualified him in sixth position at the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix.[45][46][47] MTV3 and ESPN, citing Kankkunen and Fiorio, respectively, looked into the claim a few decades later and came to a skeptical conclusion.[48][49] Red Bull explored the story further by interviewing former Lancia manager Ninni Russo, whose connections stated that Toivonen had made a time on the full circuit that "was in the first ten of the F1 cars from their test at Estoril two or three weeks before."[50] Despite the setbacks, Toivonen remained the title favourite with no driver seeming able to match his pace.

Within hours of Toivonen's crash, Jean-Marie Balestre and the FISA decided to ban Group B cars from competing in the 1987 season.[53][54] The planned Group S was also cancelled and manufacturers were stuck with cars they could not race.[55] Audi and Ford withdrew from Group B racing immediately, but other teams competed until the end of the season. The Tour de Corse continued the next day and Bruno Saby won with his Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2.[56] Prior to Santos' and Toivonen's crashes, many commentators and drivers had warned of accidents resulting from drivers simply being unable to control their powerful cars. FISA was criticised for recognising the problem too late.[45] A FISA investigation later proved that drivers' reactions were too slow to keep up with the speed of the Group B cars, and drivers' eyes could not adjust their focus between the fast corners, resulting in tunnel vision.[45] However, due to the high speed of the cars, rallying was more popular among spectators than ever. FISA had to face criticism also for overreacting to Toivonen's accident. John Davenport, author and former rally co-driver, stated in 2004 that "Group B could have been tamed. They were only unsafe in so much as the fuel system, which caused Toivonen's death, and the crowd control needed changing – it wasn't the actual cars."[57] Group B cars have been described as "too fast to race."[58]