Hayden Paddon – The Come Back Kid? 

Okay, so Hayden Paddon is hardly a kid, more of a senior statesman in rallying circles, but he is back on the world’s biggest stage with Hyundai Motorsport. We catch up with him to see how it all came about. 

It’s been some time since Hayden Paddon has been in the WRC proper, his last outing being in 2018 when he came home second in Rally Australia. But it’s not that he has been a stranger to the sport, still campaigning hard in the interim years, winning the European Rally Championship twice while adding a few New Zealand championships to the resume as well as the Australian Rally title. And all the while, still piloting a Hyundai.

He recently rejoined the WRC fray, signing on as a third driver for the Hyundai team as it looks to hunt down the Toyotas and Fords for a constructors’ championship. And so how did this all come to be?  

“We’ve kept in contact with Hyundai Motorsport with our activities here in New Zealand with the Rally2 car,” says Hayden, “so we’ve had a line of communication there and then when Ott (Tanak) announced he was retiring late last year, I was sitting in bed and I thought, well I know I’m a long shot, but I’ll probably regret it if I at don’t at least send an email and say ‘look we’re still here, we’re still motivated, we’re still interested’.”

Even Hayden admits he was surprised to get a positive response, and his return to the team was swift.

“Literally within a week we were testing at a rally in France with the Rally 2 car. We didn’t have a chance to think about it, we signed a contract, and were straight in the car.”

The Monte

Hayden Paddon says maybe that’s a good thing as he might not have gone back to Monte Carlo if he had too much time to think about it. “There were some challenges mentally and emotionally about going back to Monte Carlo after what happened last time,” in reference to his 2017 crash on the first stage, where a spectator, who was in a prohibited area, died following the incident and the team withdrew.

“I was absolutely dreading going back there but I knew I had to face the fear. We had just one day to test and it’s a completely different car to the ones we were driving eight years ago, and very different to the Rally2 car we’ve been driving regularly. The conditions were the most extreme we’ve probably seen at Monte for 20 years as well.” 

While running as high as seventh at one stage, Hayden slipped off the road in icy conditions, rejoining the rally to battle back to 11th, but out of the points.

“We got to the finish which was obviously the first objective. I knew it was going to be a big learning process, and the conditions made that a lot harder than it should have been. Sometimes we had some good splits, less than a second a kilometre off the times of our teammates, so there were a few positives but we didn’t put it together consistently enough over the weekend.” 

A different role

Returning to the top flight of a sport after an eight year hiatus is not normal, says Hayden. “It’s like an All Black retiring and coming back eight years later. I know the odds are stacked against us, but in saying that, we’ve also got a very different mindset going back this time.”

He says last time around he was determined, with a real will to be a world champion; “I was trying to win everything whereas now I’m still ambitious, but we’re playing a different role within the team, so the mindset and approach is very different.”

At least Hayden Paddon is not the ‘old man’ of the team. “Thierry and I are the same age, Dani’s older, while the youngest driver in the team’s 32. This year, they’ve built the team on experience so we can collectively work together on how we develop the new car and work towards the future.

“I think the fact that we’re all a little bit older and a bit wiser is a good thing. Even the way that Thierry and I are getting on this year is better. He knows that I’m there to help him. We’re not doing the full championship so we’re not competitors as such, we actually need to be working together to improve the car.

“The Toyotas are very fast, there’s a bit of a deficit there so it’s about working together to improve. You’re talking very small margins, a tenth or two per kilometre, but at this level, that’s a lot. The whole team’s very motivated to work and find it. The drivers can drive, but it’s just about how to extract the last bit of performance out of the car.”

A big step up

While much has changed in his time away from the WRC, he says the biggest difference is the car. “The car is very different now with the full spaceframe and the aerodynamic package too. The team has changed substantially too so it felt like a new beginning because there were so many new people.”

The Rally1 car is also a huge step up from the Rally2 machine he has been campaigning. “The Rally2 is a €300,000 car, where the WRC machine is €2 million. It just does everything differently. It has more power, but the car is just so much more dynamic. It reacts quicker, it is way more agile, which makes the margins for error smaller. It’s so reactive, the way that you drive the car is very different. The Rally2 car is like driving a La-Z-Boy, it just does everything you want. With the Rally1 car you have to have your wits about you, it’s a lot more physical to drive, you have to react quickly to what it’s doing. It’s a lot faster too, the difference is around two seconds per kilometer. And in our sport, a second a kay is a huge amount of time, so two seconds is flying.” 

Hayden Paddon – The longer term goal

While Hayden is relishing his return, there’s always an eye to the future. His long term goal is to have a New Zealand team in the WRC. “We want to have our team competing globally. We have an opportunity with the new regulation change in WRC coming next year, it’s going to open a massive can of opportunities. So we want to be there. It might not be until 2028, but it’s how we structure it, make it feasible from a financial and a logistic point of view. So the current relationship with Hyundai Motorsport and me driving again might provide the opportunity.”

While initially Hayden was thinking the team would design and build its own cars in New Zealand, he says that’s a big challenge. “Now we’re thinking how do we work alongside Hyundai Motorsport because in Asia Pacific they don’t have any teams, any distributors, so maybe there’s an element where we could be a partner to them. We’re keeping our options open there. We’ll see what happens with the WRC and our relationship with Hyundai Motorsport and just see how things progress.”

Still loving it

While Hayden thought his schedule might be a bit less frantic this year, he said he wouldn’t have it any other way. As to his WRC roster, he’ll be competing in Croatia, and another couple after that. “The third car is a shared role between three other drivers. It’s a fluctuating situation, the team will see how the championship is playing out and how each driver is doing as the season progresses.” 

“There’s a lot of travel as we’re doing a lot of events in New Zealand too. We don’t want to over commit ourselves here and lose out on opportunities with the WRC team. We’ve just got our foot back in the door, we want to make the most of it to see how it can provide opportunities for the long term as well.”

And just what keeps Hayden going after all these years? “For me it’s not a sport, it’s a way of life. Ultimately there’s nothing better than when you put the helmet on and hop in the cockpit of a rally car, that’s my happy place. I’ll keep driving for as long as I can. You have to make the most of your opportunities, and try and enjoy it while you can.”  

What’s coming in 2027? 

In 2027, the WRC will look a lot different with the WRC27 Rally1 car set to take over. According to the governing body, the WRC27 regs are designed to ‘reset rallying’s top category’ by reducing costs and therefore increasing accessibility. But they have been careful to ensure the cars will preserve the performance and spectacle fans like. 

The WRC27 car has a tubular frame safety cell, evolving the structure introduced with the current Rally1 cars in 2022. It’s said the new cells are designed to be as safe as possible while reducing complexity and cost. 

The rules surrounding body work are designed to give constructors more freedom. Currently car designs need to be based on current production models. The WRC27 rules define a ‘reference volume within which all exterior panels must sit’. And so using that space, competitors can develop anything they like. It can be a production-based design or something completely bespoke. Aerodynamic ‘devices’ are fixed however, to keep development costs in check. Cars can be between 4100mm and 4300mm long with a maximum width of 1875mm.

The term Constructor is used to broaden the definition of who can compete, be it a manufacturer or a race development company. The hope is to attract more teams as a result. 

WRC27 cars will be powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged internal combustion engine, with output around 215kW, burning ‘sustainable fuel’. AWD and a five-speed gearbox are specified, as is double wishbone suspension. Braking and steering systems will be derived from Rally2 regulations. 

It’s said that costs will be capped, with a ‘ready-to-compete Tarmac-specification car’ costing €345,000. More cost savings will come via improved durability, limits on personnel and reduced logistics.