A year ago, Jonne Halttunen was amazed at what Kalle Rovanperä was talking about – now the world champion has flashed a new shock solution | Sport

Kalle Rovanperän cartographer, two-time world champion Jonne Halttunen sat last Sunday on ‘s broadcast, on the couch of Urheilustudio in Pasila.

The situation was peculiar. Normally, at this time of year, Halttunen would be at work in a completely different way. The World Rally Championship season starts this week in Monte Carlo.

– It’s like early retirement, Halttunen laughed at the others in the studio.

– But I have to admit that it’s nice. Based on the WhatsApp groups, everyone is working under terrible pressure in Monte, but I’m just hanging out here doing a little TV.

Kalle Rovanperä, who conquered the previous two world rally championships, shocked the motorsport community in November by announcing that he would drive Toyota for only half a season.

Welsh Elfyn Evans and Japanese Takamoto Katsuta are happy at the wheel of a Toyota all season. Rovenperä and eight-time champion, French Sebastien Ogier drive part of the race.

Supplier Riku Salminen asked if Halttusen didn’t have thoughts of sidestepping in the back of his mind after Rovanperä’s decision.

– No, and it probably wouldn’t be possible from a contractual point of view.

You have such a tough marriage contract?

– We have a tough one. But I have such a hobby car that if I could drive something myself, Haltunen planned.

“We don’t have working hours”

Halttunen says that the decision about the lighter calendar was Rovanperä’s and he had no influence on the matter at all.

– I heard about a year ago that such a system was coming. At first I thought if this was coming a little too fast. Should this have been done only in the coming years?

– Now that it has become concrete, this was the right time and the right decision. This will hopefully bring more years to the end of our career.

At the latest at the beginning of the new season, Halttunen has realized how enjoyable part-time retirement is in the meantime, after two hard championship years. A normal life has not been lived enough.

A calendar that is too tight has been one of the things that the drivers of the World Championship have criticized in the team in recent years. Halttunen says that there is really no time to see family or friends when, in addition to the games, travel days, tests, sheet music and all other hassles are included.

– Life is just work and very result-oriented. The next competition is always on the mind, which is really stressful. Now we run the races that we run, and we try to be as good as possible in them, but there is no such thing as a whole that should be thought about.

– We all have one life. You have to try to live it so that you have the feeling that you have lived the right way.

Halttunen summed up that half a season is visible in life comprehensively and according to schedule in absolutely everything.

– We don’t normally have working hours to do the work between 8 am and 4 pm, but we are available all the time. Then you have to live life in such a way that there can be variables, such as test day.

The best thing about his part-time retirement for the time being is Halttunen’s generally stress-free state of being.

– I was just 20 days in Lapland, and I didn’t think about the rally at all. It is very extraordinary.

Ott Tänak’s return as world champion?

So what are the balance of power for the 2024 season? It should be clear that only three names are fighting for the championship.

Elfyn Evans has finished second three times in the World Championship between 2020 and 2023. Hyundai’s With Thierry Neuville there are no less than five second places. In 2019, I won the title with Toyota Ott Tänak returned to Hyundai after his difficult years.

In general, only six drivers drive for a full season. Among them, two races with M-Sport’s Ford, which, due to resources, has no chance of reaching the level of Hyundai and Toyota.

Both Halttunen and ‘s expert Henri Haapamäki believe that Ogier and Rovanperä will collect the best points for Toyota in the races they participate in. They get to drive rallies that are meaningful to them and get good starting positions.

Drivers who are serious about the championship have to settle for the role of extra in certain races.

– It will probably make the World Cup really even. Who knows what the situation will be at the end of the summer and how high we will be. You never know, even if Kalle changes her mind. I don’t believe in it now, but everything is possible, Halttunen snaps.

Haapamäki flashed a somewhat similar speculation in Urheilustudio.

– Of course, when there was a new points calculation system, you never know, even if the next season’s champion (Halttunen) is sitting on the couch here, even if he doesn’t drive every rally.

In any case, Finnish rally fans will now have to get used to a new era for a while. When the season starts in Monte Carlo, there are no Finns at the starting line of the main class.

– Is this a bit of a sad situation, Haapamäki wondered.

The points calculation system already mentioned by Haapamäki is a revolutionary reform, which has received a lot of criticism. It reduces the importance of winning and is very difficult to understand.

Read more: Comment: The “Rovanperä rule” cheapens winning and makes the World Rally Championship confusing

Haapamäki still believes that the World Series is not won by the best tactician.

– Yes, it’s still about absolute speed. If you never see anyone ahead of you at the finish line, you are definitely the champion. The tough duo is the Tänak–Evans department. Neuville then throws wedges in between.

Halttunen emphasizes that he would not count Neuville out of the fight, but he also believes that the Estonian champion is close to returning to win the World Championship title.

– Succeeding in a rally requires taking risks, really throwing yourself into the game. I could imagine that Ott would have the right kind of motivation now. I would almost guess Otti among these drivers.

Hyundai won the team championships in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, and since then it has been Toyota’s turn three times in a row. This duo continues their even fiercer mutual battle for the team championship.

– We have pretty strict rules, so I don’t think that the sport will develop terribly from the teams’ side. It’s about who finds the best settings and so on. Hyundai is strong, as it has been so far, and our team, of course. I don’t see Ford as having potential when they don’t have such a number one driver, Halttunen reflected.

The World Rally Championship is not doing well

Concerns have been raised about the well-being of the World Rally Championship already a year ago. The change in the points calculation system has tried to solve the problem that on Sundays the drivers were just spinning the tires saving and securing for the Power Stage.

However, it does not remove the basic problem that there are only three teams in the World Rally Championship and this season only three drivers are in practice for the championship.

Last season, Thierry Neuville really hit the ground running In an interview with Autohebdo proposals that received great publicity. Among other things, the Belgian coach suggested that most of the games be changed to less than two days.

Last fall, Ott Tänak told at the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship that the sport is dying this way. Teemu Suninen demanded a reduction in expenses and reminded of the good progress of the lower level, the European Championship.

Esapekka Lappi and Hyundai team manager Cyril Abiteboul demand more show and a more compact whole for the rally – the sport needs to be brought closer to people, as is already being done in Jyväskylä.

Henri Haapämäki, how is the Rally World Series doing at the moment?

– Not very well. Really, if there are only six drivers who drive a full season. It is unfortunately little. Of course, there has always been a narrow top that really fights for the championship.

– The situation is anemic. Nowadays, people are used to such a fast pace. They want to see who the winner is right away. Now it is chased for four days and driven into the night.

Is Jonne Halttunen worried?

– Yes, I must admit that I am. Earlier, I brought up some of my thoughts on ‘s podcast. I hope and believe that this will change in the next few years, but unfortunately we are talking about such structural changes in order to make the rally easier to follow and more compact.

– I assume and hope that it would be the year 2027, when we would see bigger changes in terms of cars. This is probably step-by-step, that the rally can be taken in a different direction. The rally has been unchanged for a really long time, if you compare it to formulas, for example.

This week in Monte Carlo, Finnish colors are offered only by those driving a Rally2 car Sami Pajari as a kart Enni Mälkönen. Rovanperä and Lappi will open their season at the Swedish Rally in February.