Evans led the World Championship for almost the entire season, but in the end team-mate Sébastien Ogier took the title by a margin of four points. Evans has previously said that he should perhaps have been slightly more aggressive in the brutal gravel rallies of the summer, but instead he focused on securing at least decent points hauls from every event, as he had to sweep the road as the first car on the stages.
Ogier started the season with a half-season mentality, but when a chance at the championship opened up, the French star decided in the summer to pursue a historic ninth world title. Evans feels that a few points may have slipped away early in the season precisely because the Welshman did not see Ogier as a serious threat in the title fight at that stage.
“No (I´m not bitter), definitely not on that side. But I definitely feel like if you start three rallies less than you’ve already give away, like almost a hundred points voluntarily,” Evans reflects.
“But having said that, I think committing to a half season and then changing your mind halfway through, I think there’s rallies like Monte where I maybe would have, let’s say, not taken the extra risk to beat him knowing he wasn’t doing the full championship. Maybe there’s things like that maybe I need to review for the future.”
In Evans’ case, it is completely understandable that he is now surely racking his brains over where in the twists and turns of the championship he could still have picked up the points he needed. In the end, however, the gap in Ogier’s favour was just four points.
In Monte Carlo, the season-opening rally, Ogier beat Evans by just under 20 seconds. The situation settled quickly in the early part of the rally, and Evans did not feel the need to attack in the fight for victory. Much the same was the case in the Canary Islands in April, when Kalle Rovanperä was in a class of his own. Ogier, for his part, took up second place right at the start of the rally, with Evans third.
“You have to you have to take the points where you can,” Evans nevertheless admits.
Still, there was a little room for what-ifs.
“But what I’m saying is, I maybe would have thought a bit harder in Monte taking a few more risks. And also in Canaries, for example. There was also a few swing of points there that I maybe didn’t push enough to because Kalle was already away in the distance. And then it was Seb just ahead.”
