Justus Räikkönen will make his four-wheel-drive and international debut at this week’s Saaremaa Rally.
The 18-year-old nephew of Kimi Räikkönen graduates from the Peugeot 208 Rally4 he used to win his class in this year’s Finnish Rally Championship to a Ford Fiesta Rally3 for the Estonian island event.
Talking to DirtFish after his first test in the four-wheel-drive Fiesta, Räikkönen said: “I’m really excited for this event. Like you can imagine, there is much more speed in the slower places than I have seen before.
“I did around 100 kilometers of testing and I was lucky to have [2022 Junior WRC champion] Robert Virves coaching me – that was really helpful. He’s given me a few tricks for the rally.”
Until now, all Räikkönen’s experience has been at home.
“I don’t know what to expect from my first international rally,” he said. “I have spoken to a lot of people and they’re all telling me that this is a very fast place! It sounds a little bit like the runway in the airport!
“This week is about experience for me. I’m really proud to have won the Finnish Championship title in my class and now it’s about building, stage-by-stage in Estonia.”
Räikkönen will, of course, be running against FIA Rally Star drivers, also in attendance in Saaremaa.
“This is nice,” he said. “It will give me the chance to see where is my pace and where is the speed with this car compared with those drivers.”
He will also be competing against his test coach Virves, who co-drives Ott Tänak on his home event.
