WRC star tipped to ‘step away’ and launch shock F1 career

Oliver Harden
Kalle Rovanpera's eyes are visible through the windscreen of his Toyota WRC car

Kalle Rovanpera is a two-time WRC champion, but his motivation has been questioned

Multiple WRC champion and one-time Red Bull F1 tester Kalle Rovanpera could step away from rallying this year to pursue a career in Formula 1.

That is the claim of respected rally reporter David Evans, who has raised fresh doubts over Rovanpera’s motivation to compete in the World Rally Championship.

WRC star Kalle Rovanpera to target F1 career?

Rovanpera stormed to two consecutive titles in 2022 and 2023, but cited burnout as he switched to a part-time program for 2024.

The Finn contested just seven events of last year’s 13-round calendar, winning four as Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville collected his first Drivers’ Championship.

Rovanpera appeared in a number of Porsche Carrera Cup race events, as well as testing a Red Bull F1 car at the Austrian Grand Prix circuit, during his reduced 2024 season.

He also attended the Monaco Grand Prix, won last year by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

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The 24-year-old made his return to full-time competition at last weekend’s Rallye Monte Carlo, where Rovanpera produced a subdued performance en route to a distant fourth, 54.3 seconds adrift of Toyota team-mate and rally winner Sebastien Ogier.

Rovanpera’s muted comeback has led to fresh questions over his motivation, having competed in another race event shortly before the start of the Monte Carlo rally.

Appearing on the Dirtfish podcast, Evans suggested that Rovanpera will need to be managed carefully by Toyota over the course of 2025.

And he suggested that the Finn could even switch codes entirely at the end of this season with the ultimate aim of “having a go” at reaching F1.

Nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb famously attempted to launch an F1 career in 2009, but was controversially denied a superlicence by governing body the FIA.

Evans said: “This is one big concern for me. Where is Kalle’s head?

“We haven’t had a rally [before] where Kalle has spoken so openly about: ‘Maybe I’m not driving quick enough.’

“He looked lost at times. Never seen that before.

“On previous Montes, he’s struggled – but he’s struggled for a reason, be it lack of experience, be it lack of time in the car, be it whatever.

“He didn’t do this event last year, so some of the stages were compromised because he hadn’t seen them, but it was a tough one for him.

“Ten days before he was in Dubai, driving a Porsche GT3 in a 24-hour race. Does that [give an indication of where his mind is]?

“I think Toyota have done the right thing.

“They’ve given him the half year [in 2024], but for me now they need to clampdown a little bit and say: ‘OK, now it’s time for work. Go and do the odd event, but maybe now – sorry to say Kalle – no drifting. We need the focus, we need the eye of the tiger.’

“He’s got the eye of the tiger, but the eye can sometimes can move away a little bit off the target.

“If Toyota can manage Kalle right, keep him focused on what he has to do, he can absolutely be world champion with a couple of rallies to spare this year.

“But therein lies the problem.

“As much as Toyota want him focused, Toyota understand that they also want him in the long term.

“And to keep him in the long term, you have to keep him happy. And to keep him happy, maybe you have to let him drift. Maybe you have to let him go and do these races.

“I could actually well see a time that Kalle takes a step away from the World Championship at the end of this year and goes away for three, four, five years.

“Maybe even has a go at Formula 1, I don’t know.

“But he could still come back and not even be 30 years old and still have another decade in the World Rally Championship.

“It’s rare that you see a driver as young as him burn out as early. Let’s call it what it is: last year, he burned out.

“He didn’t want to be engaged in a full-time program of WRC rounds, but he’s been rally, rally, rally, rally, rally since he was 10 years old or something.

“It was all he was thinking about and he sacrificed everything. And It wasn’t a sacrifice at the time, it was just what he wanted to do.

“Anybody that works at an elite level, be it a musician or a footballer, they sacrifice that time of having friends and doing whatever teenagers do because they are so focused on what they’re doing.

“There was a lot of criticism of Rovanpera last year but, actually, as a human being, he did the right thing to say: ‘Enough. For now, enough. I want to get some of my life back.’

“But has he had too much of his life back that he’s now thinking [he doesn’t want to be in the WRC anymore]?”

Rovanpera’s situation has attracted comparisons to Max Verstappen, the reigning four-time F1 World Champion, who has frequently threatened to retire young having made his debut aged 17 a decade ago.

Speaking to Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport last November, Verstappen’s father Jos raised the possibility that his son could take a Rovanpera-style sabbatical at the conclusion of his current Red Bull contract, which is due to expire at the end of 2028.

Verstappen Sr said: “We have a contract with Red Bull until 2028 and we’ll get there, then we’ll see.

“We’ll have to see if Max will still be interested in F1.

“All his life he’s been told what he has to do, including by me, and now it’s happening with the team. There will come a time when he wants to decide.

“There is certainly more to his life than F1 and Max is aware of that. He listens a lot to his feelings, he knows what he wants, but it’s difficult to say what will happen.

“Maybe he will stop for a year in the future and then he will feel like coming back.

“Certainly, it’s not the records that motivate him. He doesn’t need to win seven or eight world championships, he is already happy with what he has achieved.”

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