The 18-year-old has his sights set on a future in the world of rallying and has already completed over ten events so far this year - mainly on national rounds - with his M-Sport Poland Ford Fiesta Rally4 machine.
Rally Poland earlier this month marked the Finn’s FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) debut and he showed impressive pace by finishing runner-up to Laurent Pellier in the Junior ERC category.
A win was on the cards, however, a brief excursion on the Power Stage cost a handful of valuable seconds.
Speaking to FIAERC.com following the rally, Herranen explained why he wasn’t surprised to be competing at the sharp-end so quickly.
“I have had some really good speed in the Finnish championship this year, so I wanted to try and see how the speed was in Europe,” he said. “It turned out to be good, and I am really happy.
“In the last stage I tried a bit too much to take the win and I made a couple of mistakes where I lost time, but otherwise it was really good for us.
“I was actually not so surprised because we know that in Finland we have a really good pace in our championship, and a lot of guys that have been fast at home have also been fast in Europe,” he added.
Herranen has entered the next round at Rally Liepāja (2 - 3 July) and also hopes to contest as many remaining rounds of the ERC as possible. In terms of long-term plans, he’s keeping his options open.
“I don’t know exactly what the plan is for the future yet,” said the youngster. “Junior WRC might be a really good step forward for us [next year], but of course I also want to get to the four-wheel drive cars next year.”
Finland
Italy
Hungary