Hayden Paddon should be buoyed by his second placing in last weekend’s Rally Estonia, an event that saw him fighting it out over two days with fellow WRC drivers Ott Tanak and Craig Breen.
Local hero Tanak was the clear winner in his Toyota Yaris, but Paddon’s rally-long fight with Citroen’s Craig Breen was the perfect lead in for next week’s Rally Finland.
Ironically, this will only be Paddon’s fourth WRC event of the season, whereas last year he’d already contested eight top-level rallies.
At the same time last year, the Hyundai pilot had achieved two second place finishes, but was also seemingly under pressure to perform from his team, despite never being totally comfortable with the i20 WRC’s handling.
This year he’s had a fourth, a fifth and one accident from his three rallies, but was leading when he unluckily crashed out in Portugal. As well as that, he’s taken comprehensive victories in all three rounds of the New Zealand Championship he’s contested.
So, is Paddon’s performance so far better or worse than in 2017?
Of course, the answer to that is speculative, but from the outside looking in I’d safely say that the Kiwi was upped his game in 2018.
Having your program of events cut in half is never something a driver wants to have happen, but that scenario has allowed him to further develop the i20 AP4+ in local events, and push to the limit without fear of a team manager breathing down his neck.
The new-for-2017 WRC car certainly hasn’t fit Paddon as well as it has other drivers, and when his team appears focussed on developing the car for team-mates Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikklesen, it appears that Paddon and fellow driver, Dani Sordo, have been left to do their best with what they’ve got.
All of which makes next week’s Rally Finland a real conundrum for Paddon. Does he back his judgement and skill and push hard for a podium result, or does he start the rally with the aim of finishing every stage and bagging a solid points haul to support the team’s Manufacturers’ Championship hopes?
That depends on what the team orders are, but could also be determined by what options Paddon has for 2019 and beyond.
It’s getting near the time when the ‘silly season’ will really kick into gear, and teams will be shuffling their playing chips to ensure they have the strongest driver line-ups for next season.
Will Sebastien Ogier suit up again in 2019? Is Kris Meeke’s WRC career finished, and if not, could his inclusion in another team put Hayden’s future in doubt?
The next few rounds of the WRC will be critical to Hayden Paddon’s future. In fact, it’s probably fair to say they’ll be the most important of his career.
Fellow New Zealander, David Holder, will also be back in the WRC next weekend when he tackles the next round of the Junior World Rally Championship.
Holder has recently been driving similar Ford Fiesta R2s in local NZ rallies as he ramps up his experience in the car, and gets himself match fit for the high-speed roads and jumps of Finland.
A win for Holder on such a specialised rally will probably be a top five finish, but on such specialised roads that in itself will be incredibly difficult.
Matching his season-best of third in Portugal would almost be akin to winning the World Championship.
But where there’s a will there’s a way, and as we’ve seen in the past, Kiwis can fly!
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