Hayden Paddon clinched his first ever World Rally Championship podium in Italy last week – but he did it on an event featuring the highest superally rate for a while. And he did it from a favourable place on the road. How good was the New Zealander’s second place?
In short: brilliant. In long: very, very brilliant.
Yes, Paddon enjoyed a preferential place on the road on Friday and Saturday, but having the road swept was the one thing going for Paddon and co-driver John Kennard. There were plenty of factors countering that advantage.
Which did you chose, the hard or soft option?
Paddon was pretty chuffed with his tyre choice for the Friday morning’s first loop of stages. A mixture of hard and soft Michelins were thought to be the optimum package for the roads north of Cagliari.
Arriving at the start of the first stage proper there was significant cloud cover keeping the temperature down and anybody without a soft was seriously kicking themselves. Paddon had two, but what to do with them?
He saw Jari-Matti Latvala fitting his sole soft to the rear of the Volkswagen and asked the Finn’s advice. He was immediately told to bolt them on the back.
Paddon was concerned. He’d never driven – in testing or competition – a car with hard compound at the front and soft at the rear. Was this the time to start? Why not? Nothing to lose.
The theory is that the wear rate is more consistent, making the change in handling more progressive than when you cross the tyres.
It worked a treat for the Kiwi. He was fastest.
A handle on the paddle
Just as he’d never tested the tyre configuration he used on Friday morning, Paddon was a complete paddle novice. His i20 WRC was upgraded to the steering column-mounted paddle shift for last week, but there was no time for the 28-year-old to test the car before shakedown.
“It was pretty interesting driving the car for the first time with paddles,” said Paddon. “And I must admit, I did go for the lever a couple of times in the superspecial!”
He’s a quick learner. And he certainly knew he was onto a good thing with the paddles.
“It gave me the chance to use the engine so much more,” he added. “I was really surprised about that, I didn’t think it would make such a difference. In the really twisty and technical sections, you’d tend to leave the car in gear with the stick shift – you want to keep your hands on the wheel and if you’re changing gear in the corner you need to make sure the engine speed’s just right.
“With the paddles, you just knock it up and down the gearbox regardless of where you are. The good thing about this is that I’m arriving at the apex with the engine in just the first place, allowing us to fire the car out of the corner on the torque.”
The WRC dozen… done
It’s easy to forget just how little experience Paddon’s actually got at rallying’s highest level. Last week’s Sardinian outing was only his 12th start in a World Rally Car ever. Compare that to Ott Tanak his fellow 2010 Pirelli Star Driver graduate, who has driven the best rally cars in the world championship 23 times – far more times on domestic events.
On the subject of Tanak, the Estonian’s speed is regularly quoted as the reason he remains one of the next big things in the world championship. And ever since the pair drove those yellow Mitsubishis five years ago, Hayden has been in Tanak’s shadow. No more.
The #6 Fiesta RS WRC started last Friday just one place ahead of Paddon on the road, where the difference in road condition would have been negligible. And, let’s not forget, Tanak had one of the new singing and dancing Fords at his disposal, a not inconsiderable car advantage over the South Islander. And he couldn’t really get near Paddon.
It’s all about the experience
Another impressive aspect of Paddon’s drive last week was his limited knowledge of Sardinia. Yes, the route was 80 per cent new for everybody, but there’s definitely a knack to driving these roads and experience counts. The surface in places – especially those stages in the middle of the island, closer to Olbia – can get softer and dig out to reveal some fairly whopping rocks. Familiarity breeds an understanding of this surface and what it’s going to do on the second run and how much grip’s likely to be available. Paddon didn’t have any of that, he just felt his way through.
On the pace with the notes
One of the key areas last week was pacenotes. Friday’s completely new roads near Oristano were so technical, twisty and narrow that making a new and workable set of notes was vital. Kennard takes up the tail.
“Hayden’s always been good at making a good set of notes straight away,” said John. “It comes from our time in the New Zealand Rally Championship, where we only ever used to have a one-pass recce. When you’ve only got that one chance to look at the roads, it really makes you take in every detail. We don’t make many changes on the second run.”
Even more impressive from last weekend was the fact that Paddon and Kennard actually made a significant change to their notes during the recce in Sardinia. Paddon elected to add a second number into the notes, to instruct him of what gear to be in at the apex.
So, what would have been a 4 R – (four, right minus) became a 4 3 R, instructing Hayden that there was a corner angled four, usually taken in fourth gear, but he had to be in third to give maximum push on the exit.
Conclusion
This is just the start for Paddon and Kennard. They have taken that all-important step fro, being on the periphery of the world championship elite to landing themselves right in the centre of it. We’ve seen flashes of the pace previously (Finland last year, for example), but this was the sort of sustained brilliance which is the stuff of champions.
And the best bit is that they didn’t extend themselves to do it. OK, there was a spin in stage 17, but otherwise the Kiwis were neither ragged or reckless.
No wonder Hayden’s talking about the potential for a win in Australia. That kind of result really would unite both sides of the Tasman.
Featured on: Maxrally