Risto co-drives for Tommi Makinen, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart World Rally Team

Born: Joupajoki, Finland, 28/5/59.

Lives: Espoo, Finland

Hobbies: Ski-ing, cycling

Co-driving is a strange, unglamorous job. The co-driver is in the car at all times. He experiences most of the thrills and all of the danger, but gets almost none of the glory. Yet the driver would be lost without him. The co-driver is a kind of mobile office manager, acting as route finder, timekeeper and liaison man with the organisers. He also writes down the pace notes ­ a detailed description of the special stages ­ during practice, then reads them back to the driver at speed during the rally. One error could, quite literally, be fatal. It's a responsible task ideally suited to quiet, meticulous personalities.

A decade ago, Risto Mannisenmaki agreed to drive a farmer's son who had been rallying for little more than year. The farmer's son, undecided whether to treat rallying as a hobby or a career, was Tommi Makinen. 10 years later, there is a natural logic to the renewed partnership between the two Finns, but no doubt either that Mannisenmaki has earned his chance to replace his renowned predecessor, Seppo Harjanne.

When he first navigated Makinen on the 1000 Lakes Rally, Mannisenmaki had been competing as an amateur for seven years and wasn't sure if he could make his living from the sport. Soon afterwards, he decided to make it his living and since then he has co-driven some of Finland's most able drivers, including Sebastian Lindholm and Ari Mokkonen. He proved his mettle as a professional by joining forces with Tapio Laukkanen, who showed a blistering turn of speed in Volkswagen Golfs. Together, the pair won the Finnish F2 Rally Championship and took on a hectic programme, contesting 14 events in 1997, divided between the Finnish and British Championships. It was invaluable experience, both of working for a factory team and of competing abroad on a regular basis.

Mannisenmaki is no stranger to hard work then, but he realises that the World Rally Championship is an altogether tougher goal. The cars are faster, the drivers are better and the pressure of sitting beside a double World Champion is infinitely greater. Merely winning a World Rally Championship is cause for celebration.

Interview with Risto Mannisenmaki
1998/1999 World Rally Champion, 1996 Finnish Champion

Co-driving is a responsible task ideally suited to quiet, meticulous personalities, such as Tommi Makinen's co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki. Although they didn't team up full time until 1998, they have known each other far longer: their first rally together was Finland's 1000 Lakes in 1988. When the World Rally Champion was looking for a new co-driver, Mannisenmaki was the natural choice.

I started in 1981. I have always been a co-driver. At the beginning of my career I was thinking also about starting to drive myself, but quite soon I made the decision to co-drive. It was quite simple: I couldn't find enough money to drive.

It was in 1993 with Tapio Laukkanen, for Volkswagen, but I wasn't a true professional until the beginning of last season, when I started together with Tommi. In previous years I mixed my normal job with rallying. But I concentrated and in my mind I started to work in a professional way before I started with Tommi. I was doing work for the Finnish Automobile Federation ­ they were doing some training and that kind of thing, and I was involved with that ­ but my education is as a forest foreman. I have always worked in forests in some way ­ but the last time I was involved properly in forests was about ten years ago!

Sometimes we are very worried in Finland that it is so expensive to start to drive and to go into this business. But it can also be a good thing that is it is so expensive, because then you have to be very serious if you want to get good results. If you really want to do rallying, you can do it and if you aim to get to the top, you have a chance. But if you cannot concentrate very well, quite quickly you don't have any chance. At the start of my career, I realised that I wanted to do things in a professional way and I wanted to see how far I could get. That is the one important question, if you really want to do it, then you will have to invest all your time.

It's a completely different thing now. He always knew that one-day he would be the best driver, but it is such a long way to get to the top that afterwards it is hard to believe that it is true. Of course I remember the first time I went with him in Jyvaskyla, there was something in him and his style of work, he was already then very keen to get the car to get better and so on. He was very keen to develop the car then, but it was almost impossible, because I remember that we didn't have so many spare parts to change, or special things that we could do for the suspension and things like that. So it was just a question of going flat out and showing how fast he could drive. Honestly I have to say that he was already very good then. Ten years ago I drove with quite a lot of drivers and he was the best of them all. Now Tommi is really professional and he has good results, but he is the same person.

I think it is very important that you have good relations between driver and co-driver, so it is easy to work and that way you have a very good feeling and atmosphere in the car. That's the most important thing. Of course when you have been together for example, for one year, then things start to go easier and easier, because then both of you know what the other one is thinking and which way he wants to do things. I think the feeling and atmosphere is very important to get good results.

I think there were three rallies that were very important: Sweden, Finland and Sanremo. The 1998 Swedish Rally was very important for me to win, because it was the first time I had won a World Championship rally, but also Finland, because it was good to win at home and Sanremo, because our situation before Finland wasn't very good: before that rally, we decided that if we wanted to win the World Championship, we had to win all the rest of the events. Let's say that maybe the easiest one was Finland and then to go from there, to Sanremo, to the proper tarmac rally, it was a very good result for everybody to show that we could also win there. It was very important.

Yes, sometimes, but that doesn't mean that the speed was very high. I felt with one particular guy that he wasn't very confident and he didn't know what to do. But now I am not afraid at all. With Tommi, it feels very safe.

Of course they are completely different types of rallies, because a World Championship rally takes three days to do and four or five days to recce. In the Finnish Championship there is only one day of recce and then the rally. I think the biggest difference is when you are driving in a national championship you don't have as much stress. For example, in the Finnish Championship, there are two or three months' rest before the summer rallies start. With 14 rounds in the World Championship, you have to concentrate all the time: when you come back from a rally, you have to then concentrate on the next event and the next after that. It is going on all the time, there is no rest.

Finnish F2 Championship
British F2 Championship
1998 1st Swedish Rally
3rd Catalunya Rally
1st Argentina Rally
3rd New Zealand Rally
1st Finland Rally
1st San Remo Rally
1st Australia Rally
World Rally Co-drivers Champion

1999 1st Monte Carlo Rally
1st Swedish Rally
5th Portugal Rally
3rd Catalunya Rally
6th Corsica Rally
5th Argentina Rally
3rd Greek Rally
1st New Zealand Rally
1st San Remo Rally
3rd Australia Rally
World Rally Co-drivers Champion

2000 1st Monte Carlo Rally
2nd Swedish Rally
4th Catalunya Rally
3rd Argentina Rally