Can the Finnish Wonder Kid Become the GOAT in the WRC?

Kalle Rovanperä is a 23-year-old WRC competitor from Finland, widely acknowledged as a wonder kid these days. He made his WRC debut in 2017 and, since then, has managed to win two World Titles in the big league. And that's impressive on so many different levels. But we'll get to that part in a minute. Bear with me as I return to my initial point about human evolution. Harri Rovanpera is Kalle's dad, and he raced in the World Rally Championship between 1993 and 2006.

He drove for Seat, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, and Red Bull Skoda, competing in 111 rallies. He scored his only WRC victory in 2001 at the 50th International Swedish Rally and an additional 15 podiums throughout his career. Kalle inherited his love for the sport and benefited from his extensive experience growing up.

With just 59 rallies under his name, the young Finn has already scored five podiums more than his faster and a whopping ten more victories. This is the kind of story you'll often see in motorsports, and it goes to show how knowledge and skills are passed down from one generation to another. Although Kalle has only been racing for a few years, many people have started to think of him as the future GOAT of the sport.

It feels like he is to the WRC what Max Verstappen is to Formula 1, at least from a particular perspective. Just think of it this way: Kalle is the youngest-ever WRC rally winner. He was only 20 years and 289 days old when he won the Rally Estonia event, breaking the record set by Jari-Matti Latvala in 2008. Funny enough, on a list of Top 10 Youngest WRC Rally winners, six of them are from Finland. What's even more impressive is that almost one year later, Rovanpera broke another record. He became the Youngest Drivers' Champion in the sport's history, breaking a record in effect since 1995.

Colin McRae was 27 years and 109 days old when he set that benchmark, and everyone already thought he was not from this world for doing so. But Kalle was five years younger than McRae when he reached the same level. Returning to the Verstappen comparison, the Dutchman was already 24 years and 73 days old when he scored his first F1 title. But Rovanpera is still ahead of the current record holder, as Sebastian Vettel won his first title at 23 years and 133 days old.

The 23-year-old Finn is now part of a very select group of drivers with two WRC titles under their belt. Care to guess who those drivers are? I'll list them for you in case you don't remember: Marcus Grönholm, Carlos Sainz, Miki Biasion, and Walter Röhrl. These are some of the biggest names in the sport's history, and he's already at the same level. Sure, the pursuit is only starting, as there's much catching up to do if he's to become the GOAT.

Two of his fellow compatriots are further up that list: Mäkinen and Kankkunen have four titles each. But the biggest challenge comes from France: Sebastien Ogier has won the WRC eight times, while Sebastien Loeb is still the king with nine titles. The two Frenchmen have been dominating the series for almost 20 years now, but everything runs in cycles. Still, Rovanpera must win the championship through 2030 to match Loeb's performance, which sounds quite tricky.

But think of it this way, too: the Frenchman was 38 years old when he won his last title. Ogier was 37 when he last achieved that performance. That gives Rovanpera about 14 years, give or take, to dethrone the two legendary drivers and bring the Finnish flag up to the highest step of the WRC. Right now, three French drivers have won 18 titles in the sport, while seven Finns have only gone up to a total of 15. Ronvapera seems more than just a natural talent; he's a prodigy.

His relationship with Toyota runs so deep that he has even taken up professional drifting as a way of having fun away from the rally stages. While I wouldn't be surprised if he won a title in either Formula Drift or Drift Master Grand Prix in the future, he will most likely be committed to the World Rally Championship in his race to become the greatest of all time. He seems to have all the tools and attributes he needs to achieve that, but only time will tell if he can get there. Ring me up eight years from now and tell me if I was right to bet on him.