The rallying world will be watching closely when an all-white Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 launches into the first stage of this year’s Rally Finland. Junior WRC champion and current WRC2 title threat Sami Pajari is making a long-anticipated step up to the big leagues. But Pajari’s debut is not the only one we might reflect on as the beginning of something big.
Tuukka Kauppinen is 17 years old. This time last year, he was splitting his time between the Finnish amateur ranks in a first-generation Fiesta R2 and the national championship’s SM4 class, where the road cars utilized are almost entirely stock. This week he’s driving a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 and making his World Rally Championship debut – as the youngest driver in the field.
For those outside the Nordic region, he may be an unfamiliar name. But in Finland, many have been counting down the days until this debut would come. The surprise is potentially how fast that day has arrived – including for Kauppinen and his long-time navigator Veli-Pekka Karttunen.
“We didn’t expect this, but it’s happening,” Karttunen told DirtFish.
“Last year we drove a small, normal car with little power. The step forward in speed is so huge.”
Though he’d done some testing earlier in the year, last week’s HYAcenter Rally was the first time Kauppinen and Karttunen had competed in a four-wheel-drive car. But looking at his results in the Finnish championship this year gives a glimpse of the talent that lies underneath: he went toe-to-toe with fellow rally prodigy Jaspar Vaher on Pohjanmaa Ralli and won, while he remains locked in a close title fight with AKK Flying Finn award winner Leevi Lassila for the SM3 title.
None of this is a surprise in certain quarters, though. The name Tuukka Kauppinen had begun to spread like wildfire in Finnish rallying circles before he’d turned a wheel in competition. It was clear from testing that something special was brewing.
Kristian Sohlberg, once a WRC factory driver for Mitsubishi and now a full-time driver coach, knows what talent looks like. He’s been working with Pajari since the Toyota protege’s first outings competing on rallysprints in an Opel Astra.
The unprecedented early success of Kalle Rovanperä – who began his pathway to rally stardom pretty much as soon as he’d learned to walk – means talent identification is taking place when drivers are younger than ever: “I get a lot of contacts from parents – the youngest boy I was asked to coach was seven years old!” said Sohlberg. “I said, no, come on, call me again when he’s 13 or 14.”
His skill of analyzing while driving was something that really surprised meKristian Sohlberg
Mikko Kauppinen did wait to call Sohlberg until that age. And when Sohlberg sat alongside his son Tuukka, he immediately knew Finland had another potential WRC talent on its hands.
“From the first run I did with him in Mäntyharju in an R2 Fiesta, it was just amazing to see how he drove, the natural talent to just drive – and the most impressive part was his age. He was just 13 at the time.
“What really stood out as a big surprise for me was that he was consistently thinking of his driving lines, how he can carry the best line and the most speed, even if the road is a bit rough or there was some loose gravel and the lines were not correct. He was adjusting his driving lines and the way he attacked the corner according to what he thought was the quickest way out of the corner, basically, to carry more speed.
“His skill of analyzing while driving was something that really surprised me. It’s not that often you see that kind of thing. I had this similar feeling with Sami; he’s quite a similar driver to Tuukka in how he’s also analyzing everything. He reminds me a lot of when I was working with Sami when he was 15 years old.”
An opening-stage puncture restricted Kauppinen to 12th overall on his first competitive outing in the Rally2 Škoda
Raw talent is one thing – but it must be complemented with work ethic, discipline and hours of practice to fine tune that talent into the finished product. Any upcoming Finn of the current era is (depending on your point of view) either blessed or cursed to face the comparison to Rovanperä – but thanks to the efforts of Kauppinen’s father, there’s one element of Rovanperä’s pathway that is definitely similar: getting stuck in at a young age and driving regularly. Having a private road in the countryside and a lake in the backyard that freezes in winter for ice driving is bound to help.
“What his dad has done really well is that Tuukka drove many different kinds of cars,” added Sohlberg. “It wasn’t only R2, it was this V1600 car, he was driving CrossCars, and they had this R2 car so he was getting practice in their own farm. I think he was basically driving daily with his sister, and sometimes obviously with his father. They were just practicing, doing notes and recce training in their own farm.
“They have a road that they could drive – I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen videos – so his father has really put in the effort to make sure he has given Tuukka all the tools to drive basically whenever he wants.
“But I think he’s done it the same way as Harri Rovanperä did with Kalle. Kalle could drive every day, but if Kalle didn’t want to drive, he didn’t drive. And that’s the only way to do that.”
Kauppinen has certainly been doing plenty of driving since then. Between the Finnish national series and amateur competitions like F-Cup and Harrasterallisarja, he’s got plenty of stage mileage under his belt for someone so young. And, crucially for his WRC debut – he actually knows the Rally Finland roads already. He is a local in the most literal sense of the word.
Kauppinen won Finland's SM4 class last year in a Toyota Auris
“He is living quite close to Laukaa and Saarikas because he lives in Äijälä – so it’s like midway between those stages,” explained Karttunen. “Saarikas is quite close to Tuukka’s home. He knows the Friday stages especially well because he had been driving rallysprint series events in Ruuhimäki. There are many stages that he knows already and last year he drove the Vetomies class, so I think he knows some parts of those quite well: Ouninpohja, Västilä, Päijälä.”
It would be easy to get carried away. A prodigious young talent who showed signs of great potential before he’d competed in a single rally, making a very early debut in the world championship on roads he already knows sounds like a cocktail for a stunning arrival on the world stage.
But that’s not the idea here. This is year one of the pathway towards the top level. Now that he’s secured the backing of steel magnate Markku Rautio and his burgeoning Rautio Motorsport project, there’s a chance for him to grow.
Kauppinen’s WRC debut is not about making a big impression from day one and hoping it leads to more. He and Karttunen feel confident they’re in this for the long run.
“Experience is the biggest thing that we need,” said Karttunen. “There’s a lot happening all the time for me and Tuukka because this is also my first WRC race as a co-driver – it’s quite a big step for both of us.”
Kauppinen and Karttunen are both set for their WRC debuts on Rally Finland
“When I started with Tuukka, we started from day one doing everything to the highest standard. We both want to win all the time but on Rally Finland, we know we have much less experience and can’t win now – but we need to gain experience so that we can win it someday [in the future].”
You’ll notice there hasn’t been anything here from Tuukka himself – he’s still working on improving his English for now. But even that is mentioned by Karttunen as something they’re thinking about – no stone is being left unturned.
“We need to keep focus on small things like this English and everything else – our condition, our health, everything.”
For this week, though, Sohlberg stressed one goal above all others will be key for Kauppinen to make the most of his unexpectedly early WRC2 debut.
“When I did a rally co-driving for Isak Hatanmaa last year in Estonia, I said to him: the only thing I want to see is at every stage end is you smiling,” Sohlberg explained.
Kauppinen impressed en route to SM3 class win on Pohjanmaa Ralli in June
“And that’s what we did. We did the work and away from the stages it was only relaxed, funny chit-chatting. For me, it just needs to be fun. And that doesn’t change regardless of age. When you are having fun driving, you get results.”
Four years after the first murmurings that something special was brewing on a farm in Äijälä, he’ll be driving through the same local roads in a Rally2 car competing against the likes of Oliver Solberg, Teemu Suninen and Jari-Matti Latvala. But this week isn’t so much about the occasion in isolation – it’s whether this will be the first step towards bigger things.
“From the outside, if you follow Tuukka he seems to be a really cool customer and just focuses on his own job,” concluded Sohlberg. “I’m really going to follow him closely because, for me, he’s the next really young guy from Finland who now seems to have the possibility to do many good things in rallying.”
When it comes to debuts in Finland, this weekend belongs to Pajari. But, like Sohlberg will, it’s also worth keeping an eye on Kauppinen.
