Monte Carlo Rally schedule
How kalle rovanpera wants to break onto the bigger stage.
He can vote. Sue somebody. Be sued. Open a bank account in his own name. Buy a beer. Drink a beer. Get a tattoo. Now Kalle Rovanpera’s 18, a whole new world has opened up to him.
But the thing this teenager wants most is a maiden World Rally Championship title. And this season is the first realistic opportunity for the Finnish prodigy to land himself one when he tackles WRC 2 Pro with Skoda.
Fact is, however, son of Harri’s pretty laid back about the road ahead. At least for 2019.
“I’m not so worried about the championship,” he says, “the main thing for me this year is take more experience. This is why I want to do as many of the rallies I haven’t done before – to learn them and find out what they’re about. Of course, I want to win and do well and the championship would be really nice, but…”
He doesn’t say it. He doesn’t need to. He’s only got eyes for one world title. And that’s the one the Sebastiens have been hogging for the last 15 years.
For a nation so obsessed with rallying, not to mention one so successful (prior to Sebastien Loeb’s first championship in 2004, Finland had won 13 of the 25 titles awarded, 11 more than any other country), it’s incredible to think Rovanpera was two years old when Finland last celebrated being on top of the world with Marcus Gronholm. This year will be the next step towards him putting that right.
Joining Rovanpera in Skoda’s assault on the maiden WRC 2 Pro series will be defending WRC 2 champion Jan Kopecky.
M-sport and Citroen will both field cars in the first Pro element of WRC 2, with Gus Greensmith and Lukasz Pieniazek fronting the Fiesta R5-based attack. The Cumbrian squad will deliver a new R5 car in the middle of the season (see page 17). The Briton and his Polish team-mate will both contest 10 events in the R5 car, with Greensmith stepping up to a Fiesta WRC in Portugal.
“I’ve been part of the M-sport family for a while now,” says Greensmith, who is understood to have turned down a Hyundai seat to remain in a Fiesta, “and you can feel the direction and motivation of the team. This is where I want to be and where I’ll have the best chance to progress.”
Mads Ostberg and Yoann Bonato will look to deliver a maiden world title for Citroen’s C3 R5, while Hyundai has declined to join the WRC 2 Pro series. Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo says: “We know where our priority is for this year and it’s in the world championship, not in WRC 2 Pro.”
The decision to split WRC 2 and WRC 2 Pro is one of the motivations for Chesterfield’s Rhys Yates in stepping up to the world series. In his first season of WRC action, the Skoda Fabia R5 driver will contest nine rounds as an amateur.
“The FIA’S decision to change the structure of WRC 2 is a great idea,” says Yates. “Obviously we all want to be fighting with the factory teams, but at the same time we have to be realistic in what we can achieve – particularly for me in my first season. This is a learning year for me.”
First time out in Monte this week, Yates has the experienced Denis Giraudet alongside him in the battle against drivers like Ole Christian Veiby, who runs a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 in WRC 2. Frenchman Nicolas Ciamin also runs one of the Hanover-built machines at round one.
One to keep an eye out for this week will be Adrien Fourmaux. In just his third season in the sport, the 23-year-old has vaulted the Junior WRC in favour of a direct route into WRC 2. The much-fancied Frenchman is well-funded and tipped as a star of the future.
Thirteen drivers have already signed up for the Junior WRC, with last year’s runner-up Dennis Radstrom back to finish the job he started last season. Jan Solans, brother of 2017 Junior champ Nil Solans, is an interesting addition. Britain’s Tom Williams remains in the series to build on his experience of last season.