When Kalle Rovanperä revealed he would be leaving the World Rally Championship at the end of the 2025 season to transition to circuit racing, it did not take long for his phone to ring.
The two-time WRC drivers’ champion is already well established in motorsport at the age of 25, but his surprising news meant the level of interest in his decision was entirely unsurprising.
It was undoubtedly a huge story. Recent F1 drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Robert Kubica have tried their hand at rallying, and newly crowned champion Lando Norris is believed to be a 'secret rally driver', but no one in modern history has made the switch in the opposite direction.
While the likes of Colin McRae and Sébastien Loeb have, like Rovanperä, had the opportunity to drive an F1 car, no one has successfully made the jump to the so-called pinnacle of motorsport.
The 18-time WRC rally winner has a long way to go before securing a seat on the F1 grid, if that is the end goal he chooses to pursue, but a programme of Super Formula followed by, hopefully, Formula 2 in 2027 represents a fascinating crossover between two very different disciplines.
Interestingly, it was not something that initially attracted Rovanperä growing up.
When asked about the reaction to his announcement during an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, Rovanperä revealed that other Finnish motorsport royalty from single-seaters contacted him — and quickly, too.
"I got some messages and calls from some of my friends from motorsport,” he said. "Like Mika Häkkinen. I think he called me in the first half an hour or one hour.
"I know Mika well, and I already spoke with Kimi as well. It’s nice to hear that these guys are following it and also supporting it, so it will be interesting."
Two valuable names to have on speed dial, and Rovanperä will be sure to tap into their wealth of collective knowledge, having won three F1 drivers’ championships between them.
"I will definitely ask for some tips from those guys, because they know that formula side quite well," he added.
However, from his conversations immediately after the October announcement, there were no specifics discussed. Those will no doubt come in time as he works his way through the single-seater ranks.
"Not in detail, not yet," Rovanperä added of his chats with Häkkinen and Räikkönen. "We just talked about how exciting it is, and they gave me some tips.
"You know, work on your strength and neck, it will be very different from rallying, and I’ve already started working on that with my body as well.
"So yeah, we were just talking about it and playing with the ideas for when I go and do some testing, if I can ask for some tips or ask the guys to help. Things like that."
Inspired to chase his "new dreams at the highest level of circuit racing," as he put it in his announcement video, Rovanperä knows it will be an uphill battle to establish himself in a very different form of motorsport — a challenge that both attracts him and explains why he is making the change now.
But interestingly, it was not something he was initially drawn to growing up, making his decision to change course all the more surprising.
"Formula circuit racing — as a kid, I was never a big fan, or I wasn’t following it that much," Rovanperä revealed.
"Obviously, I always knew these guys, like Häkkinen and especially Räikkönen, his style, how he is and how he does things, I’ve always been a big fan of, and their results.
"But I was never really following F1, or a big fan of it. It’s more in the later years, my adult life, that I’ve started to follow it more.
"And I’ve started to understand it better, how difficult it is, and that’s added even more respect for these guys, and made me really start to follow the sport more."
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