Tommi Mäkinen sees a lot of the same in Kalle Rovanperä and Elia Lehto. Mäkinen admired Lehto’s performance in the legendary Kitzbühel plunge.
Finnish alpine skiing comet Elian Lehto has gained an interesting supporter. Four-time rally world champion and former head of the Toyota rally team Tommi Mäkinen has gone to support Lehto.
Mäkinen was there last weekend to watch the legendary Kitzbühel plunge.
– I have been following Elian’s excerpts for some time. It was noted in Kitzbühel that he is a tough guy. They wanted support to move forward in their careers, Mäkinen explains the beginning of the cooperation pattern.
Mäkinen was convinced of Lehto’s performances in Kitzbühel. He was eleventh in both weekend jump competitions. They were the hardest results ever for a Finnish man in the World Cup ski jumps.
– Kitzbühel is the most dangerous race of all. However, Elian withstood the pressure and performed well. He has the capacity to go forward, says Mäkinen.
At the Kitzbühel meeting, the rally champion was struck by Lehto’s calmness. Mäkinen, who confesses to be a skier, even seems to make a harsh comparison.
– You could compare Elian on skis Kalle Rovaperää in a car. A calm and clear essence, Mäkinen described.
Mäkinen has previously supported some athletes with a small contribution. Even now, according to the rally legend, it’s not about any massive support.
However, Lehto will need all the support it can get. He is part of the Swiss national team at the so-called shopping center. The costs are estimated to be around 150,000 – 200,000 euros.
– At that point in the career, all the support is certainly necessary. Gets to work in as much peace as possible and develop, says Mäkinen.
Mäkinen would not have done the same as Rovanperä
Mäkinen answered the phone just after the end of the season’s first World Cup rally. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville drove to victory and grabbed the full point pot. Before the World Rally Championship season, the renewed points calculation has been the talk of the town. It has been called confusing.
Mäkinen is on the same lines. Mäkinen says directly that he does not understand the new points system.
– That’s how much I thought that Neuville got a full 30 points. I don’t even know how much the next one got and what that means. The point system seemed unclear to me. It’s amazing. I don’t know what it was looking for, Mäkinen wondered.
Mäkinen was the head of Toyota’s rally team between 2016 and 2020. Then Toyota’s parent company bought the operations of the rally team from Mäkinen’s company. After that, Mäkinen was named an advisor to Toyota’s sports department. That shit ended According to MTV for the 2022 season.
In the opening race of the World Rally Championship, not a single Finn was seen in the main class. It is very extraordinary. The last time this happened was 30 years ago. Before the season, especially Kalle Rovanperä’s decision to drive for only half the season made a lot of noise. Rovanperä justified the matter by saying that he has been driving rallies for a long time since childhood. He wanted a little break.
What does Mäkinen think about Rovanperä’s solution?
– It’s a bit tricky. As Kalle, I would have tried to do a hat trick myself, but now I think it won’t happen, Mäkinen said and pointed to the fact that the 23-year-old Rovanperä won the world rally championship the previous two seasons.