Rovanperä announced on Instagram that he will end his World Rally Championship career after this season. Next year, he will move on to compete in Japan’s Super Formula series.
RallyJournal called Rovanperä’s co-driver Jonne Halttunen on Thursday morning. For him, Rovanperä’s decision was, of course, no surprise at this stage.
“I’ve known about this for months already,” Halttunen told.
“I don’t remember the exact date when Kalle told me, but it was definitely before Rally Estonia. I’m sure Kalle had been thinking about this decision for quite a while,” Halttunen explained.
According to Halttunen, Rovanperä’s news came as quite a surprise to him back in the summer.
“I wasn’t really expecting it at the time. I had assumed we’d keep going for another couple of years,” Halttunen admitted.
“To be honest, it was quite a shock. Of course, it didn’t come as a total surprise in the sense that I’ve always known Kalle would never be driving rallies until he’s thirty, but it still caught me off guard when it actually happened,” he continued.
Rovanperä’s decision shook the WRC community, but for Halttunen, it also meant a major personal life change.
“Those first couple of weeks were pretty rough,” Halttunen admitted frankly.
“It meant quite a big life change for me. My job effectively ended — I was, in principle, laid off. It was a hard thing to digest at first,” he added.
Now, however, Halttunen is completely at peace with his good friend’s decision.
“The more I’ve thought about it, the less it bothers me. The fact is, you can’t keep a career like this going forever, and this situation would have come around sooner or later anyway,” Halttunen reflected.
Rovanperä has said he’s aiming for big things in circuit racing. Through Japan’s Super Formula series, the Finn is targeting the ultimate goal — a seat in Formula One.
“If you think about it from Kalle’s point of view, if you have a dream and you’re given the chance to make it happen, then I would have made exactly the same decision in his position,” Halttunen said.
