It really does go without saying that New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon was the star of the 2015 Rally d’Italia in Sardinia. He took the lead at the start of Friday’s action with a string of fastest times, and valiantly held on all the way until the end of the marathon Saturday, when first a spin and then gearbox issues led to him slipping to second. He then continued to be on the pace on the final day.
But was this sudden turn of speed a fluke? I believe I have good reason to say absolutely not! There was a whiff of Gigi Galli lingering in the air when Paddon took the overnight lead on Friday like Galli did back in 2005 for Mitsubishi, but unlike the flamboyant Italian, the cool as you like Kiwi kept his overnight lead after the morning loop of stages. Sardinia 2015 was and will act as a massive moment in the career of Hayden Paddon. And even before the competitive action started, it was a significant event for Hayden. Sardinia was where Hayden made his factory WRC debut for Hyundai in 2014, and this anniversary was marked by Paddon receiving the latest generation i20, the same as team mates Neuville and Sordo, with the new paddle shift gearbox. And look at the result! A faster car and a faster driver (as he had previous experience and pace notes to count on) was always going to yield increased performance, but nobody though he’d be repelling the rampant charge of Sebastien Ogier for the rally lead. Some will put this down to the fact Hayden had a favourable road position to the World Champion, and whilst this is true it is worth pointing out that on the second day Paddon was trading stage times with Ogier, who was by then not road sweeping, nullifying the effect of road position somewhat. Most impressively was the way Paddon handled the constant pressure. A maiden podium is a fantastic result. If it weren’t for gearbox troubles it may have been a win, but I can’t help but feel Ogier would have won in the end even without the Hyundai’s issues. But this result is mightily important for Paddon’s confidence. Andreas Mikkelsen acts as a great case study. The talented Norwegian made his break-through on Rally Sweden last year, on conditions he had good experience of (like Paddon having previous knowledge of Sardinia). He gained experience of leading a rally just like Hayden and grabbed his maiden podium. After that, he was a different driver, oozing more confidence. Subsequently, as he had proved to himself he was capable, the podiums started to come. The same could very easily be true of Paddon. Compared to Andreas however, a disadvantage he has is that in terms of raw speed, the i20 WRC is not quite as quick as the Polo R WRC that Mikkelsen pilots. However, one ace Hayden does have up his sleeve is he is not prone to crashing. There were momentary blips this season – most notably in Mexico where he hit the same bank as Kris Meeke – after a then career best fifth in Sweden, but other than that Hayden’s WRC career has not been crash laden. This will prove vital if he wants to become a big boy in the WRC. Just look at Ogier and Latvala and the benefits of staying out of trouble reap clear. As ridiculous as this may initially sound, I think Hayden will actually benefit more from not winning the event. Although being a WRC winner would really ramp up his confidence, Sardinia was his first event fighting at the front and so he may falsely think it is easy to win. Any experienced driver knows however that this is not the case. Important lessons are always learnt through defeat, and whilst second is a cracking result, when you have been winning it always feels like a loss. Paddon’s hunger and desire will increase after having a taste of victory, and he can now go away and analyse what he now must do to move up the podium. If he had won, would he have looked at this rally to such a degree of depth and extract all the possible lessons from it? Possibly not. In short, Hayden Paddon’s Sardinia result was not a fluke. Even if he never ever gets another WRC podium in his career (circumstances can play against you), the speed he had was most definitely genuine. Step aside Dani Sordo?
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WRCArticles covering the World Rally Championship Archives
January 2018
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