Ott Tänak has been helping World Rally Championship leader Takamoto Katsuta behind the scenes this season, and now Kalle Rovanperä is doing the same.
Rovanperä dominated Rally Islas Canarias in 2025, winning 15 of the event’s 18 stages to win by almost a minute.
The Finn isn’t competing this year and has taken a break from his planned single-seater career due to a medical issue, so has time to help Katsuta as he tackles the Las Palmas-based event in 2026.
“Yeah I spoke a lot with Kalle last night and now he was looking also at my shakedown,” Katsuta told DirtFish.
“I think he did an amazing job last year with tire management and pushing and being committed, and it was really very impressive. So basically I spoke a lot with Kalle, asking what was he was focusing for when he was driving and obviously he was really committed in the car.
“But this kind of track, it’s same as circuit racing. You need to have a kind of clear idea what is the right thing to do with the tire – taking care of the tires and taking care of the car – what is the limit and where the limit is.
Katsuta's driving is being analyzed by Rovanperä at home
“Kalle obviously handled this really, really well last year, so I’m trying to find this kind of feeling. Of course it’s not easy, but at least I’ve got ideas from Kalle and now Ott is still behind me and looking after also.”
It’s some pairing to have behind you. But how is it working, in a practical sense, with Rovanperä?
“He asked me to send my onboards,” Katsuta said, “so I sent him and he is just checking basically and he, for example, looks at comparisons of last year stages with him.
“Last night what he basically noticed was he was more focusing on something different than pushing, because some places I was pushing but losing more time. It’s basically the same as circuit racing – when you’re really trying to push sometimes it makes it worse. That’s basically what was happening last year for me.
“So he was just looking at the full stage in some stages and trying to send me which corner was exactly where he was more patient or whatever, so it’s small details but the small details will help for sure in this kind of rally.”
Rovanperä’s domination last year was such that Sébastien Ogier, who was second to him 12 months ago, admitted “all of us” have been “checking a little bit what he was doing differently and he clearly had more confidence in the high speed corners and he was like more committed and that was as simple as that.
“Every corner above 120kph he was just more committed than all of us,” added the nine-time champion. “For that you need to have the perfect confidence and also the precise pacenotes will allow you to push like this, but it was a pretty impressive the performance he delivered last year so I think it’s one problem less to see that he’s not with us this weekend!
“But you know I think there’s still other fast drivers in the team so competition will for sure be there one more time and at least we can say that we had a positive shakedown with a good feeling coming straight away, so hopefully yeah we have a enjoyable fight this weekend.”
Oliver Solberg is expected to be at the front of that, based on his pace in Croatia. The Swede was also quickest on both passes of Thursday’s shakedown stage.
“He [Rovanperä] drove very nicely, cleanly last year, took care of the tires well, but also he had very big commitment, it looks like, compared to the others,” said Solberg.
“So I think just [need to] have a good feeling, commit to it, and see how it goes.
“It’s a very different rally again, so I think build a little bit the pace throughthe rally, but at least I know the feeling is there, so that’s good.”
