Reigning two-time world rally champion Kalle Rovanpera swapped a rally automotive for a Pink Bull RB8 System 1 automotive in a check on the Pink Bull Ring.
Strategies the 15-time WRC rally winner might drive an F1 automotive emerged earlier this season whereas an image posted on his Instagram of a go to to the Pink Bull Racing workshop in Milton Keynes final month additional fanned hypothesis.
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To organize for the outing, Rovanpera visited Pink Bull Racing’s headquarters for a seat becoming earlier than participating in a session on the workforce’s simulator.
“We did the seat becoming for the automotive to verify I’ve every part effectively within the cockpit for the check after which we did a morning session on the simulator making an attempt totally different smaller class components automobiles constructing as much as the larger ones. I used to be capable of get a dangle of the observe and stuff,” Rovanpera advised Motorsport.com previous to the occasion.
“I’m nonetheless a race driver so I wish to present my potential and attempt to do effectively.”
Final week, Rovanpera headed to the Austrian Grand Prix venue, the place he made his single-seater debut – first driving System 4 and System Renault 3.5 equipment, earlier than stepping as much as an older-generation Pink Bull F1 automotive.
Kalle Rovanpera checks a Pink Bull System 1 automotive on the Pink Bull Ring
Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool
The Finn accomplished between 40 and 50 laps on the circuit the place he raced within the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux collection this 12 months.
“It was an important day, I acquired to drive three totally different components automobiles. I acquired fairly a couple of laps in and, in fact, the F1 was one thing I had been wanting ahead to for a very long time, so it was actually cool to lastly get to drive it. The day went effectively, and I used to be left with excellent emotions,” stated Rovanpera.
“The most important variations between rally and F1 are clearly {that a} rally automotive strikes much more from the physique – F1 is a bit like a karting automotive, it would not transfer a lot from its suspension, but it surely has an unimaginable quantity of grip – and naturally, F1 has an enormous quantity of downforce, which lets you drive a lot quicker in corners. It is also bodily fairly totally different.
“There’s much more lateral G-force, the automotive stops far more and turns extra – it feels very totally different to the motive force, there are much more G-forces and the automotive has an unimaginable quantity of grip.
“Certainly, the primary time you sit in there, it feels fairly totally different than in a rally automotive – you additionally sit in such a unique place that it feels fairly totally different – but it surely was actually cool to get to really feel it as we speak.”
This 12 months Rovanpera has expanded his motorsport horizons by venturing into circuit racing having opted to contest a partial World Rally Championship marketing campaign for Toyota, forward of a return to full-time competitors subsequent 12 months.
Rovanpera’s circuit racing exploits have included a component marketing campaign within the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux collection, which has yielded three race wins. The Finn additionally contested a spherical of the Italian Carrera Cup collection at Monza final month.
Kalle Rovanpera
Photograph by: Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux
The 24-year-old can also be a daily on the drifting scene, performing everywhere in the world, and has revealed ambitions to sooner or later compete on the Le Mans 24 Hours World Endurance Championship occasion.
Rovanpera isn’t the primary WRC star to pilot an F1 automotive, with 1995 champion Colin McRae and nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb famously having fun with outings.
McRae piloted a 1996 Jordan F1 automotive at Silverstone as a part of a automotive swap stunt that noticed then-Jordan driver Martin Brundle drive McRae’s WRC Subaru Impreza.
In 2007, Loeb drove a Renault F1 present automotive on the Paul Ricard Circuit earlier than becoming a member of Pink Bull at an F1 winter check in Barcelona, the place he set the eighth-fastest time driving a Pink Bull RB4.
