The 25-year-old Finn had made a surprise withdrawal from the World Rally Championship at the end of last season to pursue a new dream in circuit racing. With Toyota\u2019s support, Rovanper\u00e4 had planned to compete in the Japanese Super Formula series this year. However, health problems forced him to pull out of the entire season even before the first race.<\/p>\n
After several months\u2019 break, Rovanper\u00e4 is keen to get back into the thick of things. \u201cAt the moment, everything is still up in the air. Next, I\u2019ll be speaking to Toyota to find out what the management want and to see if that aligns with my own plans.\u201d According to Rovanper\u00e4, racing in single-seaters remains his top priority. \u201cI don\u2019t like giving up. So, naturally, single-seater racing is still right at the top of my list. Things went pretty well quite quickly in the lower categories, such as Formula 4 in New Zealand. And it\u2019s also clear that I\u2019m not getting any younger,\u201d Rovanper\u00e4 told Motorsport aktuell. \u201cThe question now is whether Toyota wants us to give it another go together and challenge at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2022 and 2023 champion does not see a return to the World Rally Championship as his preferred option. As much as he loves rallying, the events, the tight schedules, the intensive preparations plus testing and so on aren\u2019t really his thing. On top of that, he doesn\u2019t see the appeal of the next generation of cars. That\u2019s why, alongside formula racing, the sports car scene would be an option. In 2024, Rovanper\u00e4 enjoyed success in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux with a Porsche 911 GT3. A particular focus is on competing in the 24-hour race on the N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife. \u201cThat would be right up my street,\u201d says Rovanper\u00e4. The 25-year-old blond-haired driver explained that GT4 cars are intended more for up-and-coming drivers and that he prefers a GT3 programme. \u201cThe GT3 and the Nordschleife \u2013 that would be something really special. Like many other drivers, I\u2019ve already done a few laps there during public driving sessions,\u201d Rovanper\u00e4 admits.<\/p>\n
This year, four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen took part in the Eifel Marathon at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Rovanper\u00e4\u2019s former Toyota team-mate S\u00e9bastien Ogier watched the race in person as a spectator. Just like Rovanper\u00e4, record world champion Ogier also seems keen on such an outing. \u201cThe 24 Hours of the Nordschleife in a Toyota GT3 would be a brilliant idea. But it\u2019s not up to me. A GT3 car is probably the closest thing to a Rally1 car on tarmac. I\u2019d be up for it \u2013 and I reckon Seb (Ogier) would be too,\u201d Rovanper\u00e4 is convinced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 25-year-old Finn had made a surprise withdrawal from the World Rally Championship at the end of last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-855900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}