Kalle Rovanperä certainly isn’t one to brag.
His humility is, after all, widely recognized as one of the (many) things that make this 23-year-old superstar truly remarkable.
But in the champion’s press conference just hours after securing a second World Rally Championship title on last week’s Central European Rally, the Finn couldn’t help but point out his incredible strike rate when it comes to winning WRC titles.
“Jonne [Halttunen, co-driver] just said today, and I hadn’t even been thinking about it, but we have been four years in [the] WRC main class, and two championships,” said Rovanperä. “So I think that’s a pretty good statement right there.”
Pretty good? That’s quite the understatement.
To give his achievements more context, in his four short years in the WRC’s top class, Rovanperä has now accumulated more titles than any of his close full-time WRC rivals – chiefly Ott Tänak, Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville, who have all been competing at the top level for at least a decade.
It’s a fact that makes for scary reading. But even scarier is the fact the Finn thinks he can get even better.
“Yeah definitely,” he said. “I think until you win every rally of the season you have something to learn.
“And that’s not likely to happen, so we have a lot to learn!
“But yeah, I think we have been quite quick to learn.”
And it’s not just Rovanperä who feels improvements are possible. The man sitting alongside him has exactly the same mindset.
“Yeah, like Kalle said, there’s always room for improvement and learning,” said Halttunen, who has been Rovanperä’s co-driver since 2017.
“Especially in my job, I think, because even if you win 20 titles you’re never finished, because there’s always things to learn.
“I guess that’s also the key if you wanna get more titles,” he added. “You have to stay hungry, and push to get better all the time.”
If the Finnish duo can do just that, then there’s no telling how far they might go and many records they might break.
Scary stuff indeed.
