Paddon on extra ‘brave pills’

You can hardly blame Kiwi WRC driver Hayden Paddon for packing an extra supply of ‘‘brave pills’’ for the season-opening event in Monte Carlo.

Paddon and his counterparts will be piloting new, more powerful machines when their 2017 campaigns get under way in darkness on the southern coast of France tomorrow morning.

Revised technical regulations have spawned angry-looking cars that have up to 380 brakehorsepower, are lighter and deliver improved aerodynamic and grip capabilities.

In normal circumstances, that would mean significantly more speed.

Not so much when you are in a place where the overnight temperatures are minus 15, it is not getting past zero during the day and the sight of snow and sheet ice is almost an ever-present on the mostly winding mountain roads.

While the re-introduction of another feature, an active centre differential, would help and times would still be lower, Paddon said the car changes would not be as clearly evident in Monte Carlo.

But that didn’t mean it would not take time to adjust, especially in conditions he felt would be the