Kalle Rovanperä is quitting rallying to move to single-seaters with the aim of reaching Formula 1, and Mark Hughes reckons the Finn's goal is within reach
Two-time World Rally champion Kalle Rovanperä has quit rallying aged 25 to devote himself full time to circuit racing, with the intention of reaching F1. A few weeks ago in this column, we speculated on how difficult a task IndyCar star Colton Herta had set himself by transferring to F2 next year in his quest to reach F1. But at least he’s been competing in the same sport, merely a different category. What Rovanperä is challenging himself to do is of a different order of complexity.
Ever since F1 megastar Jim Clark set a series of fastest stage times on the RAC Rally in his Lotus Cortina in 1965, there has been a fascination about how the skills of rally driving and race driving overlap. Just how good would a top rally driver be in F1 if they devoted themselves full time to it? How would a top F1 driver fare if they transferred to the WRC?
Well, Kimi Räikkönen attempted to answer the latter question in 2010-11, and while his performances in his Citroens were quite respectable, he didn’t set the stages alight. His best result was a fifth place and he was ranked 10th in the championship in both years. He later reflected that he would need to have started many years earlier to have given himself a proper chance of being fully competitive in the discipline. Starting in his 30s at WRC level was just too much of a stretch. In 2012, he returned to F1 and was immediately fully competitive once more.
Raikkonen’s rallying spell didn’t yield great results
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Going in the other direction, WRC superstar Sebastien Loeb came tantalisingly close to an F1 drive in 2009. With a second place at Le Mans 2006 already on his CV – and an impressive F1 run with Renault the following year (within 1.5sec of Heikki Kovalainen‘s time on the same day) – he was giving serious thought to a new challenge by 2008.
He was already a Red Bull-sponsored driver and the company decided to go one better than just a promotional test: Loeb would take part in an official F1 test session at Barcelona in the winter of that year, along with all the regular teams and drivers. There was an initiation test at Silverstone to get him up to speed before taking the plunge. In Spain set the eighth fastest time of the day, had no incidents and looked very much at home out on track.
Red Bull was seriously considering him as a potential replacement for Sebastien Bourdais at Toro Rosso in the early part of 2009, as the latter’s form flatlined. Loeb’s close fight for the WRC title precluded that, but he was instead pencilled in for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a week after he clinched his sixth consecutive WRC title. But the FIA did not agree to make an exception to his absence of qualifying points for an F1 superlicence. Aged 35, it was probably already a little too late. He continued in WRC and blitzed another three world titles.
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Rovanperä has recognised that if he is to make the switch, it needs to be as early as possible. Already with a bit of circuit racing experience behind him in minor categories, as the WRC’s youngest ever rally winner and world champion, he may just about have enough time left to fill up the data banks which will be necessary for such a momentous task, as well as accrue the necessary superlicence points.
With the co-operation of Toyota, he will contest the Japanese Super Formula next year with the aim, he says, of F2 in ’27. There is a building F1 association between Toyota and Haas in F1. Then there’s Red Bull, the team which gave him a promo run around the Red Bull Ring last year in a 2012 F1 RB8 and which is always up for a left-field challenge.
He’s incredibly gifted and clearly something of a free spirit. Will that be enough? It’s going to be fascinating to watch his journey.
