After this season, Rovanperä will leave the World Rally Championship and move to compete in Japan’s Super Formula series. The Finn has already stated his goal of racing in Formula 2 by 2027, with the ultimate aim, of course, being Formula One.
Diving into the world of single-seater racing is a big leap into the unknown, even though Rovanperä already has some experience in circuit racing.
In October, Rovanperä completed test days in an F2 car and was pleasantly surprised by his pace.
“Pace-wise it was actually pretty good – to be honest, even a bit better than what probably I was expecting. Obviously there is a lot of work to do, but let’s say starting from zero the pace was not bad,” Rovanperä told Dirtfish.
Driving in formula cars, however, demands more physically than rallying – something Rovanperä is fully aware of.
“Then there is many other things to learn, obviously physically also. Two full days in the car, it’s quite heavy when you come from a rally car, so there is a lot of work to do,” Rovanperä admitted.
One particular area of training in the gym is especially important.
“Yeah, obviously the neck is not really what you need in rallying. I don’t think you need it in many other sports either, like you need there [in formula racing],” he explained. “So, yeah, when you start to have the proper corner Gs all the time, basically from corner to corner, the head starts to be a bit heavy,” Rovanperä explained.
In addition to the physical aspects, Rovanperä’s lack of experience in karting and on the circuits used in formula series has been raised as a potential concern. However, Rovanperä himself is not worried about his driving.
“Driving will come with time, I don’t see any big issue there,” the Finn said.
But an issue could arise from the fact that Rovanperä will continue competing in the World Rally Championship until the end of this season, still fighting for his third world title. The time spent on that leaves less for gym training, which is currently crucial for him.
“But yeah for sure having these rally weeks here between the testing and everything I don’t really have so much time to prepare and train myself so yeah, the beginning of the year will be tough,” Rovanperä said bluntly.
“Obviously then during next year we’ll have much more time to train and the more seat time you get in the car the better it is. Obviously you always also need to sit in the cars and drive them, that’s the best training you can get,” Rovanperä continued.
Rovanperä also admitted that others are far ahead of him in terms of experience, but that fact doesn’t seem to bother the Finn much.
“So yeah obviously others have been going through the small formulas and getting stronger and stronger all the time, so it’s not so easy to jump straight in, but it’s fine,” he concluded.
