Hayden Paddon: Rally Sweden
After what has seemed like a long break it’s almost time to get our 2015 rally season underway – and what a year that lies ahead.
It was a good learning experience doing recce in Monte a couple of weeks ago. Now starting our 12 round program here in Sweden brings with it, a lot of excitement, nerves and I’m anxious to get things underway.
Both John and I are more prepared than ever – having spent the off-season working hard on our training, revising our pacenote system and studying the upcoming events. Motorsport and rallying in particular can be won in the preparation and this is an area that we are continuously trying to improve and develop.
Rally Sweden is the only full snow event of the season where we use narrow studded tyres (about 300 metal studs per tyre) that can produce more grip that what you get on gravel stages. It looks like the snowfall prior to this year’s event has been good resulting in high snow banks and better conditions for the stages.
We have only competed here once before in 2012. It’s a surface that is still very new to me and I have a lot to learn. Three years ago we struggled a little with the changing grip levels from snow, ice, and when the snow levels are low the gravel that breaks through and tears the studs out of the tyres.
Tomorrow we have our first test back in the i20 for the year, where the objective is to get seat time and get comfortable with the grip levels and the style of driving required. With our move to the #8 car as part of the main team, we will just have half a day testing tomorrow, with Thierry Neuville using the other half of the day.
It is a great honour to step up from the Hyundai Mobis World Rally Team (car #20) to take up car #8 where we will score manufacturer points for Hyundai. It is unfortunate for Dani Sordo with his injury and we wish him a speedy recovery. In the meantime we have to do our best for the team and there is a little more pressure to try and get to the finish and score points.
The first part of the season is also going to be a learning phase for us – competing on events we have little or no experience of. But once we get to Rally Portugal (which is a new event for everyone this year) it is a more level playing field and this is where we will start pushing for results. In the meantime, despite being in the #8 car, we will not change our approach and focus on learning and getting to the finish.
Like always we will keep you updated. Thanks to our partners Hyundai NZ, PlaceMakers and Pakn’Save we have a few new initiatives this year which include:
- Wednesday pre event ‘WRC warm-up’ video posted on our YouTube and Facebook channels featuring us doing local activities
- Twitter (@haydenpaddon) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/haydenpaddonwrc) updates throughout rally
- Monday 8pm CET (Tuesday NZ morning) live Q&A on Twitter
You can find all links above on our website www.haydenpaddon.com. All live results and live TV stages can be seen at wrc.com and if you have not got it yet, WRC+ is a great tool for watching, listening and seeing the WRC live from the comfort of your home.
Looking forward to test tomorrow (video to follow soon after) and the rally next weekend. Bring it on!