Suninen and Lappi started on karting and won Finnish Championships, but would you believe it based on their Rally Deutschland performances? Rallying on rough tarmac is a different sport.
Not saying it always works, but for example Mikkelsen focused quite a lot on tarmac when he was 17-18 and now he is able to fight in the top on tarmac. Think JML also did some tarmac at that age.
Some drivers are in WRC1 because of quality, some of them are there because of money. I am sure that half of the WRC1 drivers will have problems to be in top places with Rally2 machinery...
Thanks god not only on tube frames, as it looks like...
WRC mainclass from 2027