Paddon aims to fly in Finland for sake of career
This weekend’s Rally Finland is arguably Kiwi Hayden Paddon’s most important of the year as he looks to secure a World Rally Championship contract beyond this season.
The factory Hyundai driver is off contract with the Korean manufacturer at season’s end and is yet to open discussions with them or rival teams about next season. With a parttime drive this season, the 31-year-old has limited chances to impress.
Finland will be Paddon’s fourth WRC event of the season but is the one he has most experience of, his driving style is best suited to and represents his best chance to earn a top result. It also comes as teams start discussions with drivers for next season.
Paddon’s goal is to out-perform his Hyundai teammates.
“All seven rallies are of equal importance, especially from a team perspective,” he told the Weekend Herald. “The job we are expected to do is no different.
“In saying that, we have a good opportunity this weekend to get a good result and perform well against our teammates and all those performances added together will help us with our future.
“First and foremost is to try and be ahead of Thierry [Neuville] and Andreas [Mikkelsen]. We have a good chance of that. We have a good road position on [leg one].
“It’s a rally I enjoy. We’ve gone well here in the past but haven’t quite put together a result but I’m comfortable here and enjoy the nature of the stages.
“We’d love to be fighting for a podium but we also know this is one of the closest-fought rallies of the year. It’s not only about being fast but you have to be consistent. You have tenths of a second separating stage times at every stage, so we need to be there or thereabouts on every single stage.”
Paddon has enjoyed a bounceback year after a shocking 2017. He has won all three NZRC events and banked solid points finishes in two of the three WRC events he has contested but crashed out of Rally Portugal while leading.
He contested a rally in Estonia a fortnight ago to prepare for Finland and came away with a second place behind M-Sport driver Ott Tanak and plenty of confidence.
“I feel pretty good,” Paddon said. “I’ve felt good all year, to be honest. The results probably don’t quite reflect that but when you spend a bit of time out of the car, it has been a little bit difficult.
“Estonia felt good — we used it as a test session and it’s the best I’ve felt in this car for 18 months.
“A few changes were made and that’s something we’ve been chasing for a long time, so it’s good to now have that feeling and hopefully that will translate into results.”
Finland’s roads are notoriously fast, with plenty of jumps that require full-on commitment. Paddon will line up there for the ninth time and that experience will be invaluable.
“We’ve done it so often, I feel comfortable. You have to be very committed but also take the right lines and get the jumps over the corners and bits and pieces.
“You need that experience to be competitive here. I’ve never done a single rally in the world, including New Zealand, nine times before, so we have oodles of experience.”