The rumour mill continues to throw up more scenarios than there are seats, as the World Rally Championship’s silly season reaches the pointy end.
New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon is currently at the forefront of discussions, with local media outlet Velocity News reporting that the newly-crowned national champion has inked a one-year deal to drive for Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport Ford team next year.
If that’s the case – and indeed it may well have been confirmed or denied by the time this column hits your screens – it’s an intriguing development for the Paddon / Hyundai combination who, as Forrest Gump famously said, seem to go together “like peas and carrots”.
There are all sorts of scenarios playing out here, including suggestions that Hyundai will “loan” Paddon to M-Sport for 12 months, and that he would remain contracted to Hyundai.
This would possibly mean that he could continue his role as an ambassador for Hyundai New Zealand – a manufacturer juggling act rarely seen before.
“We are not sure what the 2019 NZ plans will be yet until we know what our calendar commitments are – but we have a couple of projects in the pipeline,” was all Paddon would tell Talk Motorsport this week.
M-Sport have only limited support from Ford, and they are not a full factory team like rivals Toyota, Citroen or Hyundai. It’s because of this that the Ford-Hyundai deal for Paddon could work.
But again, it’s all speculation until we see the official press release.
Adding to the intrigue was his last-minute change of co-driver at last weekend’s final NZRC round at Raglan, when Malcolm Read jumped out of Dylan Turner’s Audi and did a direct swap with John Kennard into the Hyundai i20.
Rumours doing the rounds suggest that Read will replace Sebastian Marshall alongside Paddon in 2019, and that this was the first of the test events, which seems to make sense.
When Kennard was unavailable for duty this year, it was Malcolm Peden who stepped into the role, not Read …..
What has been confirmed by Paddon is that he won’t contest the full New Zealand Rally Championship next year, with a 1-2 event program that is likely to include Dunedin’s Otago Rally.
“We achieved everything we and Hyundai NZ wanted to this year and will continue to do what we can to help the sport grow here in NZ,” he told Talk Motorsport.
“But we are also very mindful that we don’t want to deter competitors from wanting to compete and try and win the NZRC.”
Whether this means Hyundai New Zealand will put another driver into the i20 AP4 for next year remains to be seen, and may also be determined by Paddon’s contract obligations for season 2019.
One thing seems likely though, and that is that Hayden Paddon will have a full-time drive in next year’s WRC – and we’re all more than happy with that outcome.
Regardless of the make of car or the name of the co-driver, Geraldine’s finest appears to be back where he belongs, with a full 14-event program.
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