The Welshman claimed his latest WRC runners-up finish last season, when he had to concede after a tight battle to his team-mate Sébastien Ogier. The championship was only decided in Ogier’s favour at the season-ending rally in Saudi Arabia, by a margin of four points.
It marked Evans’s fifth second place in the World Rally Championship. Having finished runner-up to Ogier in the title fight on three occasions, Evans is known as an extremely reliable driver who aims to avoid unnecessary risks.
He has also been criticised for this approach, but Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler has come to his defence.
“He did pretty much everything right last year – but he came up against Ogier in what was a pretty damned near perfect season for him. Is Ogier going to have that again [with a limited program of rallies]? In fairness it’s going to be tough. I’ve always thought Elfyn has a championship in him,” Fowler told Dirtfish.
“That hasn’t changed. He has a strategy and it’s not the same as other drivers, but it’s a strategy built around building points and becoming the benchmark through the season. He’s been second five times now and each time he’s only been second by a few points.”
Fowler feels that it would have been difficult for Evans to do much differently. He stuck to his chosen strategy right to the end, but the multi-time champion Ogier was simply better.
“I think there were one or two key points of the season, mostly on Sundays – some powerstage points here and there – where he could have risked a bit more for a few extra points which, in the end, would have made all the difference,” Fowler sums up.
“It’s just so contradictory; everything that makes Elfyn reliable, that gives him the big block of points that he had – that big block of points that [Sébastien] Ogier had to beat in the end – is almost all the same thing which says he shouldn’t push in those times when he doesn’t feel comfortable.”
