Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
The thing with young drivers from my view.

Money/sponsors and some talent takes you to the level where Rovanpera is atm quite fast (off course provided there is some talent in the first place). Getting from this level (~national rally champion) to the next level (can get top 3 in wrc) is harder, getting to win WRC rallies is even harder than that and championship is another level entirely.

Take for example Matt Wilson - never got past the first level, even though he looked almost as promising as Rovanpera early on. Likewise you could take Latvala and Mikkelsen who also had similar starts and now are "stuck" on the next best level for 2-4 years.

Which is why I react to people calling "young" drivers future champions. (Lappi, Rovanpera, Huttunen etc.)
That's quite an unequal bunch of drivers you're comparing there. Like most sports, also rallying is "game of levels" as they say. IMO all the current factory drivers are of the most supreme class. Sure, then there's Neuville, Tänak and Ogier who all are just that tiny bit above everyone else - which makes them the top 3 in the championship - but I'd find it a bit odd to call that different level altogether (referreing to your view on Latvala and Mikkelsen). Lappi, as a WRC rally winner, has nothing to do with either Rovanperä or Huttunen, who haven't even competed at the level Lappi's been for the past two seasons.

I'd also say that Matt Wilson is a poor example in that context, as he never showed speed at any level where it would truly have mattered, unlike Rovanperä for example, who we can already judge vs. proven drivers like Tidemand (hence vs. Lappi and others too). That ofcourse isn't serving as any guarantee that Rovanperä will ever win a WRC event, but we can already be sure he's got the tools to make it to the very top.