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Video: Kalle Rovanperä’s pedal cam is fascinating at Rally Latvia

30th July 2024
Simon Ostler
Kalle Rovanperä, at the age of 23 has the potential, and more importantly the time, to become the greatest rally driver in history if he wants to. His meteoric rise from child prodigy to two-time world champion in the space of three years has already placed him in many a record book, but you don’t need to look at his Wikipedia page to understand just how good he is.

No, all the evidence you need is clearly on display whenever he gets behind the wheel of a WRC machine. Deft steering inputs, clean and decisive on the pedals, the way he’s able to keep the car moving with so much momentum and yet maintain inch-perfect control is mesmerising.

And here we get to see Rovanperä in action with an excellent split view of him, his feet and the view ahead to get something of a behind the scenes peak at the magic, one of the world’s greatest drivers in full flow on his way to yet another WRC win at Rally Latvia.

It’s the way he balances the car with pedals that is so impressive. This split view gives a brilliant insight into how it’s done, and we’re able to keep up with the process, albeit while watching at half speed to give our poor inferior heads a chance.

Such delicate control of the brakes and accelerator is clearly so instinctive, you can’t possibly think this kind of driving through step by step. It’s a hardwired response to synapses that seamlessly connect car and driver and result in driving like this.

By following him for two laps of this circuit course we also get to see what his mind is working on while he’s driving, and that’s fine tuning his lines through each turn as he takes onboard the course notes from his co-driver. The smallest of errors into the right hander at the 2:35-second mark is eradicated when he returns at 6:15. Fascinating stuff.

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