The former WRC star playing the unsung hero role for Rovanpera

When it comes to experience, few can rival Mikko Hirvonen in the World Rally Championship’s modern era. A 15-time rally winner and a four-time title runner-up, Hirvonen was a force to be reckoned with in his WRC pomp and regularly pushed Sebastien Loeb to the brink. 

He was one of only two drivers - the other being former mentor and Ford team-mate Marcus Gronholm in 2006 - to come within a couple of points of interrupting Loeb’s run of nine consecutive WRC titles between 2004 and 2012, finishing just a point shy in 2009 after a season when the pair shared 11 wins from 12 rounds.

That was the second of four occasions that Hirvonen would finish runner-up to the French master (the first coming in 2008, repeating the feat in 2011 and 2012), before calling time on a WRC career that counted spells as a factory driver for Subaru, Ford and Citroen in 2014.

But rather than slipping into retirement, the Finn has been quietly imparting his knowledge to the WRC’s next wave of talent, including the championship’s latest sensation Kalle Rovanpera. 

Following his final WRC outing on Rally GB in 2014, Hirvonen made three attempts at the Dakar Rally in an X-Raid Mini Countryman, with a best result of fourth on his first attempt in 2016. That same year, he took up a development driver role with Toyota, helping the marque to hone its Yaris ahead of its long-awaited WRC comeback in 2017.

This association with Toyota that has led Hirvonen to turn his attention to helping the next wave of young talent, firstly as an instructor for the marque’s driver development programme and as a member of Rovanpera’s safety crew on WRC rallies.

Hirvonen missed out on the WRC title to Loeb on four occasions - losing out on the 2009 championship by just one point

Photo by: McKlein/LAT

Hirvonen is no stranger to helping young WRC prospects, having been part of Craig Breen’s safety crew when the Irishman made his WRC top flight breakthrough with Citroen in 2016. The job of the safety/gravel crew is to run through the stages a few hours before the driver, passing on any relevant information for the upcoming pass.

After the success with Breen, Rovanpera asked the now-41-year-old to join his gravel crew for his 2020 WRC graduation. That role was expanded for this season, with Hirvonen enlisted to assist the 21-year-old on tarmac events - including last weekend’s round in Croatia, where Rovanpera produced a stunning display to snatch victory from Hyundai’s Ott Tanak.

PLUS: How Rovanpera's Croatia turnaround sent a message to his WRC rivals

“Of course I’m happy to help, it’s part of the reason I have been doing the safety crew thing with Craig Breen and now with Kalle,” Hirvonen tells Autosport of the latest chapter of his career, working with the son of 2001 Rally Sweden winner Harri - who was still active in the WRC when Hirvonen made his factory bow in 2004 with Subaru.

"If there is anything I can do to help him, I’m really happy to do it. I really haven’t been a part in training him, I think he has been growing up himself" Mikko Hirvonen

“If there is anything I can do to help young drivers, it is always nice to share my experience and information and knowledge that I have. I had a little bit of experience when Kalle asked after I did the job with Craig. I kinda enjoy that job and us both being Finnish, we feel like the last couple of years we have been improving the work we have been doing.

“I’m happy to be working with the whole team. Kalle is a young guy and it is really nice to work with him. If there is anything I can do to help him, I’m really happy to do it. I really haven’t been a part in training him, I think he has been growing up himself. He has a lot of experience already even though he is so young.

“I have just been part of his safety crew and that is the only area where I try to help him. All the gravel crews are trying to help.

“I always think about it in a way that I’m trying to give him information that allows him to feel safe to push hard. I let him know what is coming and then it is his decision on how he decides to attack those places. The more we work together, the more he understands what I mean. There is no way that it is perfect all of the time.”

Rovanpera has taken charge of the 2022 WRC title fight with wins in Sweden and Croatia, impressing the onlooking Hirvonen

Photo by: Toyota Racing

It is a relationship that Rovanpera is relishing. After a Croatia event plagued by changeable weather, the championship leader highlighted the importance of the note-making crews.

“For sure [Hirvonen] has good experience and he has been fast and has done a lot of rallies, so I think he is good at this job,” Rovanpera told Autosport. “It was important all weekend. The gravel crews had a big job to make all the notes good and precise, so we could trust them, and they did a good job on the power stage also.

“Going into the [power] stage, I was convinced our combination [of tyres] was not the easiest one to drive. But at the end, in some places, it was good on the hard tarmac. We had so much mud and dirty places, I don’t know if it was the best one. It was really tough, but I just tried to push.”

Observing Rovanpera grow into a four-time WRC event winner and current championship leader, Hirvonen has been mightily impressed. Last weekend’s run to an against-the-odds victory in Croatia, highlighted by a comeback drive to overhaul Tanak’s 1.4s final stage lead, was perhaps the best drive of Rovanpera's career to date. Having dominated the rally until a sudden downpour and an incorrect tyre choice threatened to derail his hopes on the final day, the result was no less than he deserved - but was still somewhat unexpected given his opening stage crash in last year's rally meant he had limited stage knowledge, and had an inferior hard tyre combination for the conditions. 

Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala hailed Rovanpera as a “miracle kid”, while in Hirvonen’s eyes, the performance showcased a skill that could be vital in helping Rovanpera reach his ultimate goal of becoming a WRC champion.

“It was really incredible what he did on the last stage,” Hirvonen adds. “I mean, I don’t think the tyre was exactly correct and even if it was or wasn’t, there was some mud and with the hard tyre. The time he did was really incredible.

“He has shown it a couple of times before, but when it is a really close fight he is just able to pull whatever is needed to make the difference, and so far hasn’t made mistakes in those fights. That is the quality of a future champion - no question about it.

Despite having the wrong tyres in a sudden downpour, Rovanpera demonstrated his title credentials when he overhauled Tanak in Croatia

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“Everyone keeps saying that he still needs experience and he might not be ready, but he just keeps proving us all wrong all of the time. It was also in Croatia that he was not able to do the rally last year because he made a mistake in the first stage, but that didn’t seem to bother him at all.”

While Rovanpera has emerged as the early championship favourite, Hirvonen is confident the young gun has now proven he has the ingredients to lift the title. However, he feels that extra pressure shouldn’t be placed on championship leader.

“There is no need to put more pressure on him at this point by saying it is going to be the title year,” he says. “I think it has been shown now that he can definitely win the title, but so many things can effect when it is going to happen [that] there is no point saying 'this is the year.'”

While assisting Rovanpera has seen Hirvonen back on the WRCs stages, albeit in non-competitive sense, the former WRC great’s main focus this year has been his role as chief instructor for the Toyota’s WRC Challenge Programme - an initiative that aims to unearth and guide aspiring Japanese drivers into the WRC.

"Everyone keeps saying that he still needs experience and he might not be ready, but he just keeps proving us all wrong all of the time" Mikko Hirvonen

The programme has been running since 2015 with its best success story being Takamoto Katsuta, who has transformed himself from a Formula 3 driver into a fully-fledged Toyota WRC driver. This season is Katsuta’s second full season driving Toyota’s fourth GR Yaris.

As chief instructor, Hirvonen will help train the latest crop of talent in Hikaru Kogure (20), Nao Otake (21) and Yuki Yamamoto (24) that have been plucked from a list of 60 candidates from Japan to be inducted into programme. The trio, who have been contesting rallies in Japan, started training in February before relocating to Finland this month to commence an intense full-time schedule overseen by Hirvonen.

“It is really exciting to be part of it,” adds Hirvonen. “We have a good team around us as well with [fellow instructors] Juho Hanninen and Jouni Ampuja. I was actually part of the selection process in 2018 as well when there was the first group of guys that came to Finland, and then at the time we chose Katsuta and Hiroki Arai from this group. I was a little bit involved in this programme back then as well, not as closely as I will be on this one.

Hirvonen has primarily focused on his chief instructor role for the Toyota’s WRC Challenge Programme

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“I have [been impressed] actually. I was positively surprised by their level in a way, as most of them had never driven on snow or ice. But the way they were able to adapt to those situations was pretty impressive. For sure, there is a long way to go, but they are really committed.

“It is a bit too early to call, but at the moment they are going to have a really great programme and we will give them everything they need. You never know what is going to happen, it is pretty much up to themselves how much they commit to it. If they are ready to work hard then anything should be possible.”

While it remains early days for the new Japanese starlets, there certainly can be no doubting Rovanpera's commitment. And although Hirvonen never quite managed to secure the coveted world rally title with his name on the door, the perennial bridesmaid could play a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in helping the next wave of talent achieve their WRC dreams in the latest chapter of his career.

While helping Rovanpera to his storming start to the 2022 WRC campaign, can Hirvonen help refine the next Toyota star?

Photo by: Toyota Racing