How trailblazer Kalle Rovanpera has ripped up the WRC record book

Dubbed a talent that comes along once in a generation, Kalle Rovanpera has not only rewritten the World Rally Championship record books but has already changed rallying forever.

It has previously been perceived that to conquer the WRC requires a wealth of wisdom and experience of competing at the top level. Arguably the sport’s two greatest drivers, nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb and eight-time title winner Sebastien Ogier, claimed their first crowns aged 30 and 29 respectively.

The previous youngest world champion was Colin McRae, who scaled the heights of the WRC aged 27 in 1995. Ironically, 27 years later, Rovanpera has now broken the mould, smashing that record by claiming his maiden world title aged 22 and one day, after a dominant 2022 campaign that yielded six wins.

While Rovanpera has achieved success at an unthinkable age, the first Finnish world champion for 20 years was seemingly destined to be a record-breaker and a game-changer. According to his father, one-time WRC rally winner and former factory SEAT, Peugeot and Mitsubishi driver Harri Rovanpera, “the water Kalle was baptised with might have had gasoline in it”.

He may have claimed rallying’s top prize in only his third full season in top-level machinery, but this journey to stardom began at the tender age of eight. Rovanpera Jr was tearing around frozen Finnish lakes in a specially designed rally car built by his father, honing the art of car control, before many of his rivals had perhaps even seen a rally car. Those formative years built the foundations for a superstar rally driver.

It has been suggested that Rovanpera is rallying’s answer to Formula 1’s Max Verstappen, and there are several comparisons that can be drawn. Both have quickly risen through the junior ranks to dominate their disciplines at the highest level. The nurturing of their talent has also been carefully managed by their parents, both of whom enjoyed professional careers at the pinnacle.

Former WRC driver Harri Rovanpera played an integral role in shaping his son's career, and was on hand to congratulate Kalle after he secured the title in New Zealand

Photo by: Toyota

After claiming the WRC title with two rounds to spare this year, Rovanpera was quick to acknowledge the role his parents played in his rise to success.

“Of course, he [Harri] has been the biggest part of my career regarding rally,” says Rovanpera Jr. “It has been quite simple with us. We have always been really easy regarding rally, we always had fun when we went driving when I was smaller. It is not always the case with parents that it is easy to do sports. It was special and it was the same from mum’s side, she did exactly the same thing. The support of your parents is a big part and both of my parents did it quite well.”

“Quite well” is an understatement, but that sums up Rovanpera perfectly. He has been the model of understatement even when pulling off what appear to be rallying miracles that leave many perplexed to explain. Rovanpera often describes his mesmerising feats with a simple “that was quite OK” response while onlookers are picking up their jaws from the ground.

"When we went to the new car and everyone was starting afresh, you could see how quickly he was learning everything" Tommi Makinen

By the age of 12, he had competed in his first rally sprint in Latvia, and three years later he won the R2 class of the Latvian Rally Championship, before winning the outright title in 2016 and 2017. The records continued to tumble. Aged 17, he secured his driving licence with a special permit from the Finnish government three weeks before making his WRC debut at Rally GB. After becoming the youngest driver in the WRC, he became the youngest WRC2 event winner and champion come the end of 2019, before Toyota came calling and a move to the top tier beckoned.

A first WRC win arrived at the age of 21 at Rally Estonia last July, and since then he has won seven of the past 18 WRC rallies. The statistics from his 2022 title campaign make for rather ominous reading for his rivals, too. Never mind his six wins – Rovanpera finished outside the top five in just three of the 13 rallies. He claimed 70 stage wins – 27 more than nearest rival Ott Tanak – and perhaps the most telling stat is that 50 of his 255 points were accrued through powerstage points, which outlines his prodigious yet metronomic outright pace.

Rovanpera’s rise to the title can be pinpointed to three key areas that set him apart from the rest. In five of the six rallies where there was significant rain, he won, showcasing a sixth sense for finding grip and car control, unmatched by his peers. This, added to a persona that appears unaffected by pressure, and maturity beyond his years, has created a formidable driver.

Four-time world champion Tommi Makinen is among those impressed by what Rovanpera is achieving, highlighting his superior mental strength as one of his key assets.

“Incredible performance and it is amazing how quickly he learned the new car,” says Makinen of Rovanpera’s season. “He was really quick to be fast and not struggling, and reliable. He seems to be able to concentrate whatever is happening.

Rovanpera won the WRC2 title in 2019 with Skoda before being called up by Toyota for 2020

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“He had a couple of good full seasons already but he started with the previous-generation car and that is quite advanced, and all the other drivers were far more experienced with it. He had to learn the aero and many, many things, but when we went to the new car and everyone was starting afresh, you could see how quickly he was learning everything.

“Of course, he has been driving since a young age. He has driven many different cars and he understands many different cars very well. But then of course his mental strength is so strong.”

Outgoing world champion Ogier, Rovanpera’s team-mate since 2020 at Toyota, felt the 2022 title was never in doubt.

“First of all, I don’t think many young guys will have the same opportunity he has had so early in his career,” says Ogier. “His season has been really impressive, he has been really dominant this year. Watching from afar there was no doubt he would win the championship.

“This [age] record will be hard to beat, but never say never. It is never easy to stay on top, and now he will become a target, so pressure is always there, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem for him. The future looks bright.”

If Rovanpera continues in the same manner, he could match Loeb’s nine world titles by the time he’s 30, the same age Loeb was when he secured his first world crown in 2004 – a frightening thought. And what about Loeb’s benchmark of 80 WRC victories?

But Rovanpera’s first title is perhaps more important for rallying in general. The ‘Rovanpera effect’ is already being felt. In Finland, a rallying heartland, the discipline is reaching new heights in popularity that can be traced back to Rovanpera. Although he was beaten by Tanak on his home round, 5.5million hours of Rally Finland coverage was consumed via national broadcaster YLE’s online streaming platform, which equates to the country’s entire population watching at least one hour of coverage.

Of course, Finland is a rally stronghold that boasts six previous world champions in Ari Vatanen (1981), Hannu Mikkola (1983), Timo Salonen (1985), Juha Kankkunen (1986-87, 1991, 1993) Makinen (1996-99) and Marcus Gronholm (2000-02), who have claimed 13 titles between them. But after 20 years a winner was long overdue and Rovanpera’s success has sparked new life into the country’s WRC enthusiasm.

Ogier felt there was no doubt that Rovanpera would claim his first world title in 2022

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“Drivers like that don’t come around that often, someone that special,” says one-time F1 race winner and sometime rally driver Heikki Kovalainen. “You have got Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 and then you have Kalle, who is one of those drivers like Ogier and Loeb.

“It’s great for the whole nation of Finland, it’s a big thing. Rally fans have kind of been hibernating a bit because it has been such a long time since the Finns have been fighting for the championship, and now Kalle has come on the scene the whole nation is crazy about rallying.

“Motorsport has always been popular in Finland but rallying now has really taken over. He is a great guy and super-down to earth and he is just awesome to watch.”

"After winning the championship he has brought a lot more audience and enthusiasm to the sport" Jari-Matti Latvala

According to Rovanpera’s Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala, the impact of a young world champion is being felt outside of Finland through an increase in the fanbase for rallying in general.

“I haven’t noticed any changes [in Kalle since he has won the world title] – he has been really cool and calm as normal,” says Latvala. “But I can tell you what has changed is the amount of people we had at Rally Legend [a special non-championship event in Italy in October]. I have never seen so many people in the service park, everything was packed and they were very excited to see Kalle.

“This is clear after winning the championship he has brought a lot more audience and enthusiasm to the sport. There was more than 70,000 tickets sold at Rally Legend. There was no time to do photos and signatures for everyone, there were so many requests.”

There is no doubt Rovanpera is one of those special talents that could challenge many of the WRC’s records. He could also be the force to galvanise not only a new fanbase, but also inspire the next wave of talent, people who now believe that success in rallying is achievable at a younger age.

Rovanpera has galvanised the rally-mad nation, delivering it a first title since Gronholm in 2002

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The McRae take on Rovanpera’s success

Before Kalle Rovanpera’s record-breaking run to become the youngest World Rally champion, the mantle had previously been held for 27 years by the late Colin McRae. The Scot lifted his maiden and only world title in 1995, driving for the factory Subaru operation, in what proved to be a tense and at times controversial campaign that has gone down in rallying folklore.

Interestingly, both drivers were at similar points in their fledgling WRC careers when success arrived. McRae won two rallies, compared to Rovanpera’s six, in his title year, but the season comprised just eight events compared to the 13 in 2022. In contrast to Rovanpera, McRae was constantly playing catch-up after retirements on the opening two rounds of 1995 in Monte Carlo and Sweden.

But like Rovanpera this year, McRae too was victorious in New Zealand. That victory triggered a title charge thanks to a second in Australia, before the infamous trip to Spain, where a team-orders row forced McRae to cede victory to his title rival, team-mate Carlos Sainz. After the acrimonious scenes in Spain, McRae won a title shootout against Sainz in Great Britain to seal the crown on home soil.

While the record has been passed on to Rovanpera, McRae’s younger brother Alister believes that Colin, who died in 2007, would have been impressed by the new record holder’s talent.

“I’m sure Colin would be looking in a bit of amazement at how good he actually is at such a young age,” says Alister. “I think it’s a worry for everybody else in the championship.

“We knew he [Rovanpera] was quick, but the maturity and the ability this year has got a lot of people wondering how he’s able to do it at that age. It’s pretty amazing to have that composure and the ability to push and set the times he sets, when at times he doesn’t need to do it.

“He just seems so comfortable in the car and in his own driving. He is doing things, having just turned 22, that’s just not normal.”

Kalle Rovanpera receives a pair of Colin McRae’s boots from Colin's daughter Hollie McRae

Photo by: Hans De Bauw