To date, Paddon’s role with Hyundai has been to support his full-time teammates Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux.
Paddon narrowly missed out on points in Monte Carlo but was a standout third in Croatia after Neuville and Fourmaux crashed out of contention.
Come May 28-31, Paddon and co-driver John Kennard will take on the asphalt streets of Japan with the express intent of being top five contenders.
“It’s another new rally for us, but this time the approach shifts,” said Paddon.
“It’s time to release the shackles and turn up the speed.
“There’s less pressure on us to simply finish as there was at Monte Carlo and Croatia – although this doesn’t stop that being a key goal – but John and I want to try and get closer to our teammates in terms of speed and stage times.
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“We’re feeling much more comfortable in the car and want to use that to try and be competitive within the top five or six.”
The rally takes place in Toyota City, just east of Nagoya.
A total of 20 stages will take place across three days, with Saturday the longest at 120km of competition.
Paddon recently tested with Hyundai as part of his preparation.
“I’ve also benefited from another one-day test in Europe, helping me get to know the car more,” Paddon explained.
“Based off my feelings and the data from Croatia, we tried some new setups which took us in the right direction.
“However, there’s no opportunity to test in specific Japan conditions, so the Shakedown runs immediately before the rally starts will be very important for fine-tuning the car.”
Paddon and Kennard have competed in Japan just once before, back in 2010, when Rally Japan was on gravel and a round of the FIA Production World Rally Championship. The Kiwis finished second in this category.
You have to go back to 2010 for the last time Paddon competed in Japan.
However, that was a gravel rally when he competed in the FIA Production World Rally Championship.
“We’ve obviously been doing our homework on the stages,” said Paddon.
“They look quite slow, tight and technical, so different to the European tarmac rounds.
“Compared to Croatia with the huge amount of dirt and stones being dragged onto the tarmac, we’re expecting the stages in Japan to stay relatively clean, allowing for the fact it’s coming into the rainy season.
“We can expect some wet conditions at some point during the rally, which will make roads extremely slippery.”
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans leads the FIA World Rally Championship on 123 points, followed by teammate Takamoto Katsuta on 111 points. Third is Oliver Solberg on 92 points while Fourmaux is the best of the Hyundai drivers in fourth on 79 points and seeking his first win of the season.
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