World champion rally driver Kalle Rovanperä talks about driving in EA Sports WRC compared to the real world

Have you ever wondered if your racing game skills can translate into real-life driving? Well, two-time and reigning rally world champion, Kalle Rovanperä, believes they can.

Central European Rally: One of the toughest courses

With the addition of the Central European Rally in season 2 of EA Sports WRC, we asked Rovanperä about the challenges of this particular course.

Rovanperä explains, "I would say it’s definitely quite a difficult rally. The biggest challenge is that you are having quite high-speed stages on tarmac, with a lot of cuts and pollution on the road. So the grip changes are really big. You have a lot of high-speed, big brakings, and you never really know how the grip is. That makes it really challenging."

Tips for tackling the course

If you're planning to take on the Central European Rally for the first time, Rovanperä offers some advice. He suggests, "I think on this one, you really need to listen to the pace notes quite well to be quite sharp on those. And yeah, try to have the setup of the car and the driving style really focused on good brakings and exits of the junctions, because there are a lot of them. They seem simple, but you can still gain or lose a lot of time on them."

From the track to the game

Rovanperä is not the only world champion driver who is an ambassador for EA Sports racing games. Max Verstappen, a world champion driver in Formula 1, is also an ambassador for EA's F1 games and a fan of racing in both games and on the track.

When asked if Rovanperä has played these serious online racing games, he reveals, "Yeah, I’ve also done something like this. I’ve had some races in games, but then I have done some simulators too, like Max. That is quite a high level. That is the people who are really spending a lot of time there. So even if you’re a professional, you really need to put some time and work into it if you want to be fast. It’s quite cool. It’s challenging, and it’s nice."

WRC: Realistic and enjoyable

So how does WRC compare to real-life rallying? According to Rovanperä, "It’s really nice. The new physics are definitely much better and much more realistic. And yeah, I would say, when I can jump from the real car and drive the game, with a similar driving style and similar effort, and be fast straight away in the game, it means that it’s realistic. You can use the real stuff – what you know from the real car – in the game. So that’s what I enjoy the most. It feels realistic, and I can straight away be quite OK in the game, trying to push with a good pace."