At the start of the season Kalle Rovanperä couldn’t have been more dismissive of his chances of winning a fast round of the World Rally Championship.
It simply wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. How could it?
One of the most complicated things about driving a current generation World Rally Car, in the 19-year-old’s opinion, is understanding the aerodynamics and how they work. To comprehend the nuances of high-speed, knife-edge driving, you need to spend time in that zone; you need to wobble, to get away with it, to not get away with it and, most importantly, you need to understand the reasons why.
You simply don’t get that level of know-how from testing. And, regardless of whether you’re a world champion at that level or not, you don’t get it from an R5 car.
You get it from living it.
So how on earth did he do what he did in Sweden.
I asked him.
He grinned. I asked him for a deeper thought and he grinned again.
It was, he said, quite difficult to explain. In short, he couldn’t explain it and didn’t see the point in explaining it. The reason? It’s called natural talent.
Admittedly, Toyota’s pre-Sweden testing was done on fast roads around Jyväskylä, so that would have helped, but still, what Harri’s boy did on round two was very, very special.
Asked where he thought his speed might shine through this year, Rovanperä went for slower-speed events like Portugal and Sardinia. Or somewhere like New Zealand, where the roads reward an attacking, committed style like his, but nobody has any workable experience of the stages (Hayden Paddon excepted, if he starts) offering a level playing field.
Mexico?
Apparently not.
The word is: “Mexico could be one of the trickiest events of the year for me, with my experience.”
Granted, thin-air rallying is not easy. The down-on-power cars don’t offer the torque or power on approach to a corner or the same response on the exit. It takes time to learn to drive one of these things in León. Admittedly, he would have learned more from his time in the Škoda Fabia R5 car two years ago – the effects of the altitude are felt much more keen among the cars now known as Rally2.
On top of that, there’s the need to understand how the road will evolve, where the rocks are likely to be pulled out and which ones need adding into the notes. It is a complicated rally. And, while Kalle could keep his nose clean and chase a podium result this week, it’s likely there will be a more cleaner and more experienced nose going slightly quicker ahead of him.
Argentina’s more of the same next time out. But, when we get back to southern European gravel, we should expect to see him making the most of a favourable place on the road to lead rallies through Friday and well into Saturday. That final day rally craft comes with experience and that’s the bit that could take more time.
What about Finland? That’s the big question, isn’t it?
Do we dare dream about that story? Why not? Yes, he’s short on experience of these cars, but he’s got a great idea of how to drive those roads in Finland. So much speed between the 1000 lakes comes from knowing where to place the car on the road and understanding where it’ll go and what it’ll do. Success in Finland also comes down to bravery and bottle – they’re not the same thing. But Kalle has both in abundance.
So, what are we saying then? Finland?
Shall we? Yes, let’s.
You read it here first: Kalle Rovanperä, 19, will score his first WRC win at Rally Finland in August.
Unless he wins this week…
