WRC champ Kalle Rovanpera is the newest sports activities icon to change into an EA Sports activities Ambassador, as we talked to him about rallying, gaming, and extra.
Kalle Rovanpera could not but be a family title – not less than past his native Finland – however on the tender age of 23 he’s already an icon on the planet of motorsports. He’s the reigning World Rally Champion, having simply secured his second WRC title in a row, and solely the sixth rally driver in historical past to take back-to-back world crowns.
He’s additionally simply been made an EA Sports activities Ambassador, becoming a member of an illustrious set of sportspeople that features Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, Sam Kerr, and David Beckham. One among his first duties in that new function, it turned out, was to speak to us by way of Zoom.
Provided that Rovanpera has had such a stellar 12 months you’d anticipate him to be fairly triumphant. Nevertheless, it shortly turns into clear that he belongs to the nice motorsport custom of level-headed Finns, and he refuses to get overly carried away about successful the World Rally Championship twice in a row.
He’s clearly happy, although: ‘Two occasions in a row means in a method quite a bit. It’s not so usually you could get the second proper after the primary one. And once you do it two occasions, not less than you show to all people that you just have been able to doing it. So yeah, I’m positively actually completely happy.’
Rovanpera’s second WRC triumph was much less spectacular than the primary, but additionally demonstrated how he has an outdated head on younger shoulders: ‘I believe the important thing to this season was being actually constant. Already originally of the season, I knew that every one the groups can be extra constant, so the plan was to be actually constant after which get factors on a regular basis. And I believe the one time we have been out of the highest 4 was in Rally Finland after we crashed out, so each rally apart from that was fairly good.’
One of the crucial tangible rewards of his success in 2022 and 2023 was changing into an envoy for EA Sports activities. So the apparent query is, is he a gamer? ‘Sure, I’m truly, and I’m glad to be an envoy for EA Sports activities. Once I was a child, I performed plenty of the WRC video games and driving video games general. So, yeah, to be an envoy for a corporation like EA Sports activities is actually cool. It’s a cool model and all younger individuals like me know them. So for me, in fact, it’s personally actually cool and now that they’re working with the brand new WRC recreation, it was an ideal second for me.’
As he alludes, his timing couldn’t have been higher, since 2023 was a 12 months wherein EA Sports activities notably upped its dedication to rally-driving, buying the official WRC licence and commissioning legendary motorsports recreation developer Codemasters, which EA Sports activities acquired in 2021, to make the sport that bears its imprint.
Rovanpera is properly conscious of Codemasters’ rally recreation prowess, initially demonstrated by way of its Colin McRae Rally and DiRT Rally video games: ‘Yeah, for certain, I’ve been driving of their outdated video games, like DiRT Rally. And positively after I heard that Codemasters at the moment are working with this new WRC recreation I used to be excited – they’ve made some good progress in all of the rally video games they’ve made prior to now years.’
So how does WRC 23 examine to driving a real-life rally automotive? ‘I might say other than actually truly shifting and having the G-forces and stuff, it’s fairly good and reasonable. I all the time really feel that if I can drive a simulator right away, fairly properly, with my driving abilities from the true automotive, then for certain it’s reasonable, as a result of then I can drive the identical method as in the true automotive and it really works. That has positively been the case with the brand new WRC recreation: I can right away soar into the automotive and drive fairly properly.’
It’s doubtless that certainly one of Rovanpera’s duties as an EA Sports activities Ambassador can be to tackle players in WRC 23, and he positively sounds amenable to that: ‘That might be a good suggestion; I’m certain we’re that means to do one thing like this. There are already some people who find themselves so good within the recreation that I actually need to place a while in earlier than that, so I can attempt to keep as much as their tempo; they’re fairly quick from what I’ve seen. Lots of my associates are also actually quick now already within the recreation.’
Rallying is a famously robust sport wherein to realize an preliminary entry. Its contributors must be extremely motivated from a younger age and have the means to get entry to rally vehicles, that are extremely specialised beasts. That’s why two developments run by way of the game: many drivers come from established rallying households, and plenty of are from Scandinavian nations, which have a vibrant rally-driving tradition.
Rovanpera’s father, Harri, is a widely known rally driver who competed within the WRC from 1993 to 2006, and Kalle provides some perception into when he first drove a rally automotive: ‘For me, it was in fact after I was actually younger. I performed some video games, possibly, with the PlayStation however nothing with, let’s say simulators or something like that. Then after I was six, seven years outdated, I began with the traditional automotive after which the rally automotive. I did some karting too, however just for a couple of years.’
However that state of affairs could possibly be about to alter; motorsports is likely one of the few areas of the sporting world wherein esports present a potential path from taking part in video games to real-life competitors. A number of esports stars have already graduated to competing in real-life motorsports, particularly in endurance racing. So, does Rovanpera suppose that might additionally occur in rallying?
‘Yeah, we now have seen this taking place in circuit racing loads. I believe in rallying, the simulators are getting higher and extra reasonable on a regular basis, and I’m certain that it’s the identical case – you could be taught all of the fundamentals, not less than, within the video games, after which when you get the possibility to drive an actual automotive, for certain you’ll be a lot faster getting up to the mark and as much as the true feeling.’
Having conquered rallying on the tender age of 23, it appears that evidently Rovanpera has additionally been eager about different types of motorsport. Through the 2023 WRC season, he introduced that he’ll take issues simpler in 2024, contesting simply half of subsequent 12 months’s World Rally Championship races. He explains: ‘Yeah, it’s true; subsequent 12 months we’re going do half of the WRC season, after which I’ll do in fact some drifting, like I’ve performed to date, and doubtless some circuit racing additionally. 2025 will once more be a full 12 months, so it’s only one 12 months between.’
The thought is to recharge his batteries – rallying is a famously intense type of motorsport, wherein drivers, co-drivers and their crews should put in detailed analysis and spend the very best a part of every week at every venue when its race is on. So Rovanpera desires to maintain his 2024 motorsports diversification free and straightforward.
‘It will likely be fairly informal. I don’t wish to replenish the entire 12 months doing one thing else – I wish to take a little bit of relaxation from the rallying and the travelling. So, I’ll hopefully get the possibility to do not less than a couple of occasions in a number of the different motorsports and let’s see – nothing is deliberate but.’
However there’s each probability he’ll additionally loosen up with some WRC 23 classes. One among his 2024 initiatives is to assemble a brand new driving-game rig. ‘I truly had a very good one earlier than; I moved throughout this 12 months to a brand new place, so I’ve been a small time with out it, however I’m increase a brand new one once more.’ In order that’s Kalle Rovanpera: double WRC champion, EA Sports activities Ambassador, drifter, and gamer – a completely trendy motorsports icon.
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