The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Jari-Matti Latvala, reveals that he tried to calm Takamoto Katsuta down after the last one's exit at Rallye Monte Carlo.
Takamoto Katsuta dropped eight positions at the end of Stage 13 as he did a mistake there.
More specifically he ran wide on a left-hander and slid into a ditch in Stage 13 resulting in his Yaris being stuck.
However, thanks to the spectators and to the marshals, he and his co-driver, Aaron Johnston, managed to continue and to get to the finish line of this stage.
Before the start of Stage 13, he was in fifth position overall whereas he dropped to 13th place overall after this mistake, but eventually he finished in eighth position overall at the end of Rallye Monte Carlo.
"All I would say is he was a little bit even depressed on Saturday", Latvala said.
"He was really so hard on himself.
"If we look at it, his performance has been good on the rally.
"I said OK, same as Elfyn – small mistake, big penalty.
"I said, ‘OK, you brought car back, there is no damage’.
"Of course, he lost time, but then I tried to be positive: ‘Let’s forget, let’s focus on a new day’ because he takes it really hard on himself.
"Then he starts to build up the pressure on himself even more and I try to avoid that happening because then I’m afraid the performance will start to drop.
"So the main thing is we try to be positive and find the positive things with Taka.
"I don’t think that’s what it’s about, I’m just afraid he starts to build up too much pressure.
"That is what I’m afraid of, and then that will affect him because he’s a little bit like me, that he’s thinking about the mistakes, and when you overthink it’s not good".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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