This time, however, it wouldn’t be as a driver. Although the New Zealander was a regular presence in the WRC only a few years ago, even taking a victory in the 2016 Rally Argentina, he now has different ambitions.
In recent years, Paddon has competed in the European Rally Championship, securing back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024. This year, however, he won’t defend his championship, as he plans to focus on the Australian Rally Championship.
But Paddon’s aspirations extend even further, potentially leading him back to the WRC. The FIA’s recent regulatory framework, unveiled in December, may open the door for smaller teams to join the championship’s top class.
Under these new rules, top-tier cars will be closer to the current Rally2 specifications and subject to a strict cost cap, set at €345,000.
Paddon, who runs his own rally team in New Zealand and has developed a fully electric rally car based on a Hyundai Kona, sees these changes as a potential gateway. Running a Rally1-level car is not feasible for a small operation, but competing with a lower-cost vehicle might be achievable.
“These new rules that have been announced for 2027 are definitely of interest and definitely create opportunities for people like us to potentially build and run our own cars,” Paddon told DirtFish.
“I guess at the moment it’s still a bit vague in terms of the exact rules, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of that over the next sort of six months to see if that’s something that we can target.”
The flexibility these new regulations offer is especially appealing to Paddon. He’s already considering what a New Zealand-based WRC team could look like.
“We’ve got a lot of very good young engineers, it would be great to try and utilize some of the good Kiwi ingenuity and innovation we’ve got going down here,” he explained.
“And I think there’s just a lot more of a storyline that you can tell behind that in terms of launching a New Zealand team if things are actually built and designed from Kiwi land. Then we potentially have more opportunities to get funding and investors and build a bit of a business model around it,” Paddon said.
Currently, only three manufacturers compete in the WRC’s top class: Hyundai, Toyota, and M-Sport Ford. These new rules aim to broaden the field, encouraging more teams to join the championship.
