Inside Rally

Top WRC kiwi driver, and fans favourite Hayden Paddon had two offers on the table – Citroen and Hyundai. Not a bad position to be in after just half a season in top level WRC. This morning Hayden Paddon has revealed that he has chosen to stay with Hyundai for 9 rounds in 2015.

Announcing the news on his Facebook page, Paddon said, “A big year ahead as we continue with Hyundai Motorsport for a minimum of 9 events, starting with round 2 – Rally Sweden. We have built some good relationships within the team over the past 12 months and look forward to striving forward with the team. After all, they did give us our break this year. Looking forward to a bigger year, with more events, more seat time and hopefully, better results. Who’s ready for 2015?!”

Its thought that the 9 events will be mostly gravel Rallies and Paddon will also continue with John Kennard as Co-driver.

Split times into cars will be banned from WRC special stages in 2015 to spice up competition.

Photo:D.Darrall

The FIA World Motor Sport Council voted to ban splits into cars, and if the rules are broken then big penalties could be applied, such as exclusion from the championship to deter manufactures from attempting to ‘cheat’. The ban on splits, which has been previously discussed in season gone by, is to prevent teams from controlling their drivers and gaps between rivals so as to create more unpredictability on WRC rounds.

Drivers also can’t be informed during a live stage if a rival has retired or lost time, unless it is a safety issue, e.g Blocking the stage, or any other matters related to safety.

But don’t worry, as split times will still remain available to fans and the teams back at base in order to follow the action as it unfolds as normal.

Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito told AUTOSPORT: “It’s the same for everybody, so OK. But you cannot stop this.

“It’s impossible to police – what if somebody from our team shows a split time to [rival driver] Thierry Neuville? Is Neuville then out?

“It’s uncontrollable and therefore we think it’s stupid.”

Mahonen said a draconian punishment would be enough.

“Of course we cannot police this 100 per cent, but the consequence will be a big enough deterrent,” he said.

“If you get caught, you can be excluded from the championship. The manufacturers will not take the risk.”

The WMSC also confirmed that any car which does not leave a stage start within 20secs will be considered as retired from the leg, while only the highest-placed car in a team can score points in the WRC 2 and WRC 3 categories.

After spending years of fighting for finance, battling his way up the WRC ladder. And landing a part time drive with Hyundai earlier this year.

It seems Kiwi Hayden Paddon’s career is like waiting for a bus. Wait for ages and then two come at once!

It would seem that Paddon is about to live his dream again as a WRC driver for next year, as after his continued improvement in performance this year has got him two deals on the table. Now he just has to decided which offer is best for his future.

The offers come from Hyundai, who he joined for to do selected events this year. And Citroen, who are one of the most successful teams in WRC History. But its all about whats best for his future, as Hayden Paddon isn’t looking for just a one off drive, or even a one year drive. He wants to be a future World Champion.

“We want to be World Champions one day. It’s a long way away yet, but next we want to try and be fighting for the podium later in the year and then following that, then start going for event victories and then from there you can be in a position to fight for the championship.”

Talking to TVNZ, Paddon said,
“We have two offers on the table from two different teams, it is certainly quite humbling. It probably complicates the process a bit more but it means maybe we did something right this year,”

“We’re just working through the finer details at the moment and hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will become apparent what we’re doing.”

“We have to think about what’s going to give us the best chance to be competitive in the future but that’s all part of the decision making process as well,” he said.

Arguably one of the greatest
rally drivers of all time, Sebastien Loeb will return to WRC for a one-off Citroen drive.

Photo:D.Darrall

The 9 times World Rally Champion Loeb, will be on the starting line of the first round of the WRC in Monte Carlo, for a one-off drive for Citroen Racing in the DS3 WRC car, along with co-driver Daniel Elena.

Breaking the news on Twitter, the French super star said, “It’s now official, I will be at MonteCarlo with CitroenRacing & the DS3 WRC!! So happy to be back in rally with @DanosElena 🙂 It will be for sure an exciting and personal challenge as I didn’t race in rally since a while.”

Loeb’s last WRC event was in 2013 on Rally France. He has won Monte Carlo 7 times in the past, and although he has been away from the WRC for 14 months, the Frenchman will still be hoping for victory on the event, with some planned pre-event testing in between his WTCC commitments.

Loeb’s biggest rival before he retired was that of the now double World Champion, Sebastien Ogier. Will we get to see the WRC’s most recent two World Champions fight it out again on the World Stage?…..