WRC Safari Rally: Defending champion Rovanpera raring to go 

Twice world champion Kalle Rovanpera has kicked off a social media conversation on his return, seeking a third WRC Safari Rally title.

“It's Safari time next!” the Finn posted on his X handle this week and the tweet generated 39.9k views within hours with over 2,731 likes and 280 reposts. 

“Yes. It is definitely Safari time. Hope you will find a way to be able to focus on the road and not the car,” responded Robert Saba on the same medium.

Kimani @Njunguna added: “Karibu Kenya. I love Hyundai but Safari Rally has indeed been a Toyota affair since the 90s.”

“Kenya is a very rough tough event but if anyone can tame it and win. You can Kalle as you’ve done in the past and another win can definitely be on the cards for you! Be able to,” observed Alex Warne.

Rovanpera, navigated by Jon Halttunen Jonne, has been a big draw in Kenya since 2022 when he displayed a rare instinctive reaction time at the Kasarani Sper Special Stage where he almost rolled but in a split second returned the Toyota Yaris on the road.

Though only 24, his achievements are legend.

He has won 15 rallies, finished on the podium 25 times, won 218 stages and is already twice world champion.

Rovanpera went on to win on his debut Safari to collect maximum points which he consolidated to end the season as the youngest world champion aged 22 years 1 day.

He will be looking for his third Safari Rally title in his first full world championship engagement after a part-time season last year when he competed in selected WRC events, did drifting and took time off to relax. 

Rovanepera is placed third in the 2025 championship driver standings after finishing fourth in Rallye Monte-Carlo and fifth in Sweden last month.

He will be joined by World championship points leader Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari in the non-hybrid Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

He has complained of not really having come to terms with his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 and the new Hankook tyres but remains confident that he will overcome this challenge in the Safari.

“Now we need to focus on the next rally on gravel with a completely different tyre and work to be stronger there,” Rovanpera told WRC.com. “Sweden was a difficult weekend — we were trying to push hard but just didn’t have the pace or performance we wanted.

“We have one day of testing before Safari. I don’t know about the specification for the tyre, which one it will be. It’s another new thing (to be running on the gravel-spec Hankook) and we must see how it goes. There’s not really much we can do to prepare before the test, I just hope it’s going to be working more in a way which works for me.”

Tyres are going to be critical in the Safari for everybody as all competitors will be racing on Hankook brand.

Hankook Tire are the new exclusive suppliers for the FIA WRC for the next three years.

Every driver will be required to exclusively use a maximum of 28 Hankook tyres during the duration of the four-day African classic. 

Any driver found in possession of a different brand other than Hankook Tire will be fined Euros 500 (Sh 65,000) by FIA which has entered a three-year contract with Hankook as the exclusive tyre supplier for the World Rally Championship (WRC).

Starting in Monte Carlo Rallye in January 2025, and for the next three years, a South Korean tyre company, Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire), will supply the WRC top tier teams with competition tyres after winning the FIA's tyre partner tender ahead of other global brands like Michelin and Bridgestone.

Hankook Tyres will be used on gravel for the first time this season in the Safari with Hankook Tire's European Motorsport Director Manfred Sandbichler confident that they will pass the real test in Nairobi, Naivasha and Gilgil. 

So, what is so special about rally tyres, and can they be used in motoring? And what is so special about rally tyres?

But first can you use rally tyres in your ordinary saloon car?

You may but it is not recommended because they are designed for extreme conditions like gravel roads with heavy cornering and acceleration, making them unsuitable for normal road driving.

This will compromise handling, increase operational costs because a rally tyre has a short lifespan of not more than 500km under extreme conditions like in the Safari, according to specialised tyres blog Streettire.

Rally tyres will increase noise and potentially compromise safety due to their soft compound and aggressive tread pattern.