The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia driver has three titles to his name and comes into the 2025 season as last year’s champion.
Joined by Coral Taylor, Bates is expecting he’ll be far less successful than his 2024 title run.
“I don’t think I’ll be winning as many stages as I have in the last few years,” Bates told Speedcafe.
“I certainly hope I can win some stages and then ideally win some rallies as well.
“I’m not writing off our chances by any stretch just because Hayden’s coming, but it’s going to be a big challenge, and I’m expecting the time sheets to be pretty tight here in Canberra.”
Paddon has proven he’s one of the world’s best.
With a WRC win to his name and more recently a title in the European Rally Championship, the Kiwi has been earmarked as the favourite.
He’ll compete full-time in the Australian Rally Championship for the first time in his storied career with veteran co-driver John Kennard alongside.
“For me, it’s very exciting – I’m obviously stoked to have Hayden in the championship,” said Bates.
“I think he’s a real coup for the ARC and I think everyone here should be very grateful that he and his team have made the effort to come over.
“I’m certainly very excited about the prospect of competing against him. I guess I’ve got the advantage in terms of road knowledge here, so It’ll be nice to come up against him, regardless, just to benchmark myself against someone like him.
“To me, Hayden is definitely one of the top five, top eight rally drivers in the world, and I think statistically his results show that.
“For him to be here competing in our championship, it almost feels surreal, but I’m very excited.”
Neal Bates Motorsport will once again field two Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 cars in the Australian Rally Championship, the second driven by Harry’s brother Lewis.
The season-opening Rally of Canberra takes place on March 21-23.
