Like Ott Tänak, Kalle Rovanperä will return to the World Rally Championship in 2027 despite walking away from it in 2025.
Unlike Tänak however, Rovanperä will not contest all 15 rounds of the championship next year; instead taking on a partial season with some other projects to be confirmed.
The 26-year-old’s return to rallying was never supposed to be in the plan though, with Rovanperä plotting a move into single-seaters for the foreseeable future at the end of 2025.
Illness, however, thwarted that plan, and now the Finn is back in the sport that made him world champion both in 2022 and 2023.
“Obviously if we go back to rallying there is not really room to do any single-seater stuff,” Rovanperä told DirtFish.
“The plan was not to do rallying, so then we have failed on something. When the project went how it went, I’m completely fine with it when it’s health reasons like that. Having vertigo more times than what it was said publicly in the high G corners, it’s also something I cannot do anything about.
“So yeah it’s really unfortunate but I’m also completely fine with it myself. If it’s something like that which I cannot really affect, there is not much more I can do. I accept it and life goes on, and life gives you things that you don’t expect and you see what happens next.”
Rovanperä ended up having a quiet year of motorsport in 2026, which he said acted as a “great reset for myself”.
He is unlikely to become WRC champion again in 2027 considering his schedule, although Sébastien Ogier proved in 2025 it’s possible to miss events and still finish top of the table.
“I think the championship is what you want to go for, but I have two so it’s not my only goal,” Rovanperä said.
“If I can do a cool season of half rally and then drifting and then cool projects on the side, that’s something which I really like a lot – especially now in my place of career where I am and place of life, I also give a big kind of value that what I do I enjoy and I can do different things.”
Rovanperä has had the chance to try Toyota’s new car for 2027 too, adding: “It’s going to be a good car. If you ask a driver who comes from a faster car to a slower car I don’t think anybody says it’s more fun, it’s a part of a racing driver’s DNA.
“But also for me not driving Rally1 this year, you hear the guys comparing Rally1 to that for sure they’re not so happy, but I’m sure the car’s gonna be good. It’s going to become faster and faster all the time so I think it’s still going to be fun.”
