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Next start: Rally Australia Nov. 12 -14 2004
Harri Rovanperä hopes for a full program in 2005
Rovanperä is in the drivers’ top three in this year’s
championship when it comes to reliability, together with
Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz. Except for those three, all
the other five regular WRC pilots have ended up retiring from
competitions at least twice because of going off.
After a season of lean results, Harri would prefer to have an
opportunity to drive a full program in 2005
Peugeot 307 WRC has proved its speed during its first season out. The
reliability of its mechanics hasn’t been as good as expected.
Especially the gearbox, provided by a subcontractor, has turned out to
be very challenging when trying to make it more reliable. Even if the
current season, for this reason, has brought Rovanperä less success
than expected, Harri has been able to give a demonstration of his speed
and stamina. Harri’s choice for next year would be to drive a full
program, including asphalt rallies, of which he has good results from
previous years.
Despite mechanical problems only three retirements!
When it comes to his talents as a driver, Rovanperä doesn’t need to feel
ashamed of himself this season either, for in most of the rallies he has
been very convincing in bringing his car securely over the finish line and
into points. Despite having had some sort of mechanical problems in
almost every rally, Harri has retired from only three events this year. In
Turkey and in Italy, he was forced to do so because of a broken
gearbox, and in the Finnish world championship rally he went off while
he was in front of the race.
Rovanperä one of the fastest and most reliable drivers
- fifth in stage wins
Drivers’ special stage wins (13/16) 2004
1. Solberg 83
2. Grönholm 57
3. Loeb 54
4. Märtin 18
5. Rovanperä 16
6. Sainz 13
7. Duval 13
8. Tuohino, Hirvonen,
= Loix, Robert 2
When his car hasn’t caused trouble, Rovanperä has proved to belong,
without any doubt, among the fastest drivers of the World Rally
Championship again this season. He has posted the fifth biggest
number of stage victories, even if he has rarely been able to profit by a
faultlessly working car throughout an entire event. In his ten
championship starts this year, Harri has managed to bring his car to the
finish and into championship points seven times.
The rallies of New Zealand and Greece are the only ones in which Harri
has been able to enjoy driving a car with no major mechanical trouble. In
consequence, Harri finished in third place in Rally Greece reaching his
13th podium position ever. Harri is one of the seven drivers who, this
season, has made it onto the podium.
In the events of Mexico, Turkey, Japan and Wales, Rovanperä was hit
by mechanical problems right in the beginning, but even so, in three of
the rallies he managed to struggle his way to the finish and into a points
position. In seven rallies, Harri was battling among the top in the early
moments, four times he was one of the fastest two, until he was
dropped down due to a mechanical failure in the car. But even in those
rallies, Harri eventually finished in points five times.
Top three of the most reliable drivers in WRC:
Loeb, Sainz and Rovanperä!
With 13 of the total of 16 world championship rallies completed in 2004,
eight drivers among those who do a full championship program have
taken at least ten starts. Loeb, who has participated in thirteen events,
has only one retirement. In Mexico, he hit a stone causing the oil sump of
his car damaging too badly for him to continue. Sainz has also taken part
in all of the thirteen rallies, and he too has retired only once after going
off in Monte Carlo. Rovanperä has been forced to retire twice due to a
mechanical failure, and once after going off. Except for Loeb, Sainz and
Rovanperä, all the other five regular WRC pilots have been forced to
retire at least twice this season as a result of going off.
Rovanperä is not happy with the decrease in the number of
asphalt rallies:
“I prefer smooth asphalt to gravel cart roads”
The Italian round of World Rally Championship was transferred from
asphalt onto gravel. The same is rumored about the Catalonian WRC
event. In that case, only three of the 16 world championship rallies
would be run on hard surface. One would guess that Harri Rovanperä is
thrilled about this prospect, but instead he says:
- I’d much rather compete on asphalt than on these cart roads that were
used this year in Sardinia!
- I would love to drive on asphalt as well, Rovanperä assures. – For this
season, though, I only had an agreement for gravel events, so I have
been trying to concentrate on them, Rovanperä says.
Harri is obviously uncomfortable about the stamp he has been given of
being a “gravel specialist”, because he has done remarkably well in
asphalt rallies as well. He has a group win in San Remo and two third
places of a group with Seat in Monte Carlo from times when the two-
wheel-drive monsters of Peugeot and Citroen were very close to top
positions even in general classification when on asphalt. With the WRC
equipment of Seat, Harri drove evenly with e.g. Piero Liatti in Monte Carlo
in 1999, where he clocked the stage win of Col de Turini and took
eventually seventh place in the overall competition. In several other
asphalt rallies, Harri in his Seat WRC managed to score competitive
times compared to so called asphalt specialists.
With the cars of Peugeot satellite teams, Rovanperä participated in
seasons 2001-2002 in asphalt events in France, Italy and Spain. He
finished in places 7th to 9th and was faster than e.g. Freddy Loix,
known as a specialist on asphalt, who was behind the wheel of
Mitsubishi, the winner car of that time.
During his time in Peugeot, Harri has so far been allowed to drive only
one asphalt rally with a works team car. He was summoned in the last
minute to Rally Germany in 2002. At his best, Harri posted fourth and
fifth fastest stage times, even if he hadn’t had a single test day before
the rally.
- Competition in world championship rallies is so tough that whatever
your car on whatever surface, you really should have a chance to test
the car before you can be expected to make any good results. Asphalt
is not a more special surface for me than any other, Rovanperä points
out, reminding that he has raced on track as well.
Rovanperä is hoping for his next year program to comprise
all the world championship rallies, because his speed,
experience and reliability make for good grounds for success
on any surface.
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