INSIDE LINE
HAYDEN PADDON
Part-time schedule
has road order perks07DRIVER’S EYE VIEW
1 AUGUST 2019rom the start of my career
all the way up to winning
Rally Argentina in 2016 and
beyond, I set myself targets.
I always had a plan how to progress.
So, hearing that I’d be driving a part-
programme with Hyundai in the 2018
World Rally Championship was a huge
blow. It was: ‘Wow, what do I do next?’
After 20-plus years of moving
forward, for the fi rst time in my life I
had to take a step back. It was hard to
accept the momentum I’d been building
towards chasing a world championship
had, at least for the moment, gone.
One of the keys to driving a part-
programme is to understand the
motivations and targets of the team
and then balance that with your own
ambition. I had a three-month gap from
my fi rst outing of the season in Sweden to
my next rally in Portugal. That was tough.
I knew I had to deliver a solid result in
Sweden. I didn’t want to put the car in a
snowbank then go home to sit and think
about that for the next three months.
The team wasn’t keen on that either.
We fi nished fi fth, a solid start. After
that I got my head down and got on with
my training and driving my Hyundai AP4
car as often as I could. I’m a fi rm believer
F
EXPECTATION
VERSUS AMBITION
Ahead of his one-off WRC return in Finland, the Kiwi explains
the unique challenges of not running the full schedule
that driving is the most important thing- the competition is secondary. I was in
my i20 and any car as much as I could be;
driving diff erent stuff is good, it makes
you more adaptable.
That time wasn’t easy. Sitting at home
watching Dani [Sordo, sharing the part-
programme] putting together some good
results was tough. That’s something else
you have to get over. You can’t start
thinking, ‘This guy’s in my seat...’
Everything is much more about the
team’s bigger picture. I got that and I
was glad for Dani – he did the job for
Hyundai in the same way I did.
Back to Europe for Portugal and I was
really pleased with the pace; we were
fastest on the fi rst gravel stage and led
the rally on Friday. OK, it didn’t end
the way we wanted, when we went off
the road and out of the lead, but we had
at least been straight on the pace.
One of the potential advantages of not
doing all the rounds of the WRC is starting
further down the order on the opening day - because you’re running high in the
championship – and getting cleaner roads.
That wasn’t really the case in Portugal,
where the roads were much sandier on
day one than in previous years – and
it certainly wasn’t the case on our next
event in Sardinia, where it rained for the
fi rst time in 20 years or something like that!
Later in the year, the running order
helped us a bit, but at that time I was very
focused on doing the job the team had given
me. And, anyway, if you sit at the start of
a stage thinking, ‘I’m in a good position,
I’ve got to make the best of it, I’ve got to
push’, then nine times out of 10 you’re
going off the road.
Hyundai’s target for me might have been
diff erent to the one I wanted for myself,
but there was still the very clear focus on
driving and keeping the car clean and in
the lines where the grip was.
I hit those targets the team gave me in
the second half of the year and I’m happy
for that. But with hindsight comes a bit of a
nagging question of, ‘What if?’ Particularly
in the last two rallies, I had a chance to
push harder and possibly make a better
result for myself there.
Going one better than the second place
we scored at Rally Australia would have
been good for me... Q“Watching Dani was
tough. You can’t
start thinking, ‘This
guy’s in my seat...’”
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2019 Three wins in New Zealand
Rally Championship (Hyundai)
2018 Seven World Rally
Championship events
(Hyundai), 2 podiums; NZRC
champion (Hyundai); 5 wins
2017 Eighth in WRC (Hyundai),
2 podiums
2016 Fourth in WRC (Hyundai),
1 win, 3 podiums
2015 Ninth in WRC (Hyundai),
1 podium
2014 Six WRC rounds (Hyundai)
2013 NZRC champion (Mitsubishi),
3 wins; three WRC-2 events
(Skoda), 2 podiums; debut
in factory WRC car (M-Sport)
2012 Fourth in SWRC (Skoda), 2 wins
2011 Production World Rally
champion (Subaru), 4 wins
2010 Third in PWRC (Mitsubishi),
1 win, 5 podiums
2008-09 NZRC champion
(Mitsubishi), 6 winsMcKLEIN