Kalle Rovanpera is one of the top talents in the World Rally Championship as he races in 2024 as the two-time reigning champion.
The Finn first competed in the WRC in 2017 as a private entry, driving a WRC-2 Ford Fiesta R5 at the Wales Rally and Rally Australia, winning the latter in his class.
Rovanpera earned a drive with Skoda Motorsport in 2018, where he finished second in WRC-2 that year before moving to Toyota in 2020 for a full-time assault with a Rally1 car.
Securing top five finishes in all but one rally in his debut season, the 23-year-old grabbed his first wins in the WRC the following year in Estonia and Greece.
In 2022, Rovanpera turned it up a gear and won his first WRC title by 50 points over Ott Tanak, winning six rallies and grabbing eight podiums. He continued his dominance last season as he finished in the top four in all but one of the 13 rallies to win his second championship over Elfyn Evans y 34 points.
Kalle Rovanpera set to return to full-time rallying in 2025
This season, the Finn is competing part-time with Toyota alongside Sebastien Ogier, with Evans and Takamoto Katsuta racing full-time for the Japanese manufacturer.
Rovanpera has only competed in six rallies this year, finishing outside the top 30 overall in two of them and he crashed out of his home event at Rally Finland. However, the 23-year-old has won the other three in Kenya, Poland and Latvia, with Ogier also winning three to make up Toyota’s six rally wins so far this season.
Rovanpera is currently sixth in the drivers’ standings and is outscoring full-time driver Katsuta by six points, with the Japanese driver finishing in the top five only twice so far this season.
Following the team’s disastrous result at Acropolis Rally Greece, team principal Jari-Matti Latvala admits he made a mistake with Toyota’s 2024 line-up and wants to have a third full-time competitor for next season.
And speaking with Motorsport.com, Latvala revealed that Rovanpera is set to return to full-time rallying for the 2025 campaign.
“Kalle has already mentioned himself that that he is doing a full season and this is what we have been targeting,” he said.
“It is clear that if Kalle drives, then it’s a full season, we just need to check a couple of things. But that is the way we want it to be.”
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Toyota are set to reassess their driver line-up for 2025
Rovanpera driving full-time in 2025 will prove to be a huge boost for Toyota in their bid to reclaim both WRC championships.
Having won the last three drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles, the Japanese manufacturer have fallen behind Hyundai in 2024, with Thierry Neuville leading the championship by 34 points over Tanak, with Ogier four points behind him in fourth. After Greece, Hyundai now hold a 35-point lead over Toyota in the manufacturers’ championship.
With Latvala urging his drivers to forget about both championships, it is clear that the team need to rethink their line-up for 2025, with neither of their full-time drivers winning a rally so far this year.
But with Rovanpera set to return to a full-time campaign, the team have been dealt a huge advantage given his skill and brilliant results shown this season and his two consecutive titles the years prior.