The rally master’s withdrawal is telling.
Kalle Rovanperä will not drive formulas this season, but announced that he still intends to continue with track racing. PDO
of the Japan Racing Insider blog Jamie Klein land in his most recent writing Kalle Rovanperän Super Formula withdrawal backgrounds.
Rovanperä and Toyota announced last weekend that the Finnish star will miss the entire season due to health issues.
The driver and team did not specify the exact reason for the withdrawal, but Rovanperä is known to have suffered from benign postural dizziness.
Super Formula team Hitech project manager Richard Selwin had admitted to Klein that Rovanperä should strengthen his neck for the trials of the formulas, but there was no indication that the postural dizziness that plagued the December tests would continue to be a problem.
However, a journalist specializing in Japanese motorsport considers it a valid guess that the concern raised in the December tests is behind the news burst announced on Saturday.
According to him, the same conclusion is supported by Rovanperä’s temporary replacement Seita Nonaka was reported very quickly.
Tough decision
Klein draws attention to the fact that Toyota announced the withdrawal of its chairman Akio Toyoda mouth hours before Rovanperä’s own update went public. Although he sees the order of march as natural given Toyoda’s large role in orchestrating the transfer, the scale of the move itself raises questions.
The Japanese brand made it clear at once that the giant project is on hold for a long time.
– It seems more than just a little strange to me that Rovanperä’s entire season was canceled in advance instead of one or two races, as is normally done when a driver is sick or injured, Klein wonders.
