How forgotten WRC2 champion Emil Lindholm is trying to revive his career at Skoda

He was one of the most promising drivers of his generation. In the pure lineage of Finnish drivers in rally, he was considered a potential successor to Tommi Mäkinen, Marcus Gronhölm, Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen, to name but a few of the greatest Finnish drivers of our century. A member of a golden generation for Finland, alongside Kalle Rovanperä and Sami Pajari, he has nevertheless fallen into a surprising anonymity in the last two years. This driver is Emil Lindholm, WRC2 champion in 2022.

Lindholm, a rebound expected after the Hyundai failure

Crowned with a world crown just three years ago, the Helsinki native has suffered a series of failures since then and saw his career come to a standstill in 2024. The reason? An uninspired choice to join the clan Hyundai, during the 2023 season. Announced as a natural candidate to integrate the South Korean team in Rally1 aboard the third car – notably after the death of Craig Breen, in April 2023 – Emil Lindholm never had the chance or the confidence of Hyundai to drive in the premier class. Overtaken by Teemu Suninen, then by Esapekka Lappi and Andreas Mikkelsen for this third seat, the Nordic driver saw his career get bogged down in Rally2 with mediocre results.

With a Hyundai i20 N Rally2 that was inferior to the competition, Emil Lindholm has never managed to score good results: 21st in WRC2 in 2023 (6 points), 29th in 2024 (10 points), the Finn did not even compete in the seven rallies allowed to score points in WRC2 last season. In an attempt to save and relaunch his career, the 28-year-old driver has decided to return to where he had his greatest successes: in 2025, Emil Lindholm will drive for Toksport, a structure that lines up a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, alongside WRC2 vice-champion Nikolay Gryazin. A great second chance for the Nordic driver.

"I hope it's not a 'reset'... but in a way, I see it a bit like that, Emil Lindholm confides on the WRC website. Coming back to Toksport and Škoda is nice, but it’s like going back three years. I would say my first goal was to continue with Hyundai, but that might have taken us away from WRC2. So we had to look at alternatives, especially because our long-term partners and fans wanted us to stay in WRC2. We evaluated everything, but Škoda and Toksport obviously offer a competitive car. The team is really good, and as we had a successful relationship before the last XNUMX months, we chose to go in that direction.”

 

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"It is no secret that our project with Hyundai was to test in the higher category, but it was never easy for several reasons, he adds regarding his missed appointment with Rally1. Honestly, I have no hard feelings. I was very happy to have had the chance to drive the [Hyundai i20 N] Rally1 last year, including some debugging and customer operations, so it was a great experience. I still remember the first time I got behind the wheel. It’s such a fun car that it seems easy. Now, I know it gets harder when you add the pace notes and a road you don’t know, but it’s fantastic to drive.”

Five rallies on the program… for now

Currently, Emil Lindholm and co-driver Reeta Hämäläinen have announced a five-rally programme in 2025 in the WRC2 category, with the event set to kick off with the Rally Islas Canarias (24 – 27 April). “At the moment we have the budget for five events, then we will see what happens next. I hope we will fight for good positions in the championship. If that is the case, we will of course do everything we can to also compete in two more events.” Three years after his title, can Emil Lindholm get back up and revive a career mired in gloom? With a proven and efficient machine, the Finn will have the cards in hand to compete with the best in the category.

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