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With his first WRC podium in the bag, everything’s looking rosy for M-Sport’s Welsh charger.
The news at Rally Argentina last month was dominated by Kris Meeke taking his first ever World Rally Championship victory. The popular journeyman driver from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, whose career had seen so many false dawns, finally made his WRC breakthrough, aged 35. As they say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Two steps down the podium, however, was Elfyn Evans. The softly spoken Welshman had profited from a last gasp mechanical failure from Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala to be promoted to his first-ever top three finish.
Although the headlines focused on an emotional Meeke dedicating his win to mentor Colin McRae, Evans’ third place was a major milestone in the career of the M-Sport driver, a career that’s unfolding exactly the way a young drivers’ should. Let us explain the five reasons why…
Reason One – He’s already a Junior World Rally Champion
The last 11 World Rally Championships have been won by former Junior WRC winners. OK, so that’s only two drivers, Sébastiens Loeb and Ogier, but Elfyn makes no bones about how important his title in the 2012 WRC Academy – as it was called then – was.
“If I hadn’t won the Academy, I would definitely not be where I am now,” he says. “We knew that the step of going up to WRC2 was massive financially if you wanted to fund it yourself. The prize with the Academy was five rounds in the championship, and that was my only realistic chance of going down that route. So it was definitely a big part of when I am now.”
And while for every Sébastien Loeb there’s a Brice Tirabassi or a Daniel Solà (follow this link to see what we mean) Elfyn at least knows he’s in the right place to capitalise on his success, which brings us neatly on to…
Reason Two – He’s got great people around him
Any young WRC driver will have to overcome disappointments and setbacks when they step up to the top level of rallying. But in M-Sport team boss Malcolm Wilson and Elfyn’s dad, former British Rally Champion Gwyndaf Evans, the young Welshman's got the ideal support group to build his confidence.
“Obviously Malcolm gave me a massive chance to get in the World Rally Car at the beginning of last season. He’s continued to support me since and has been very, very good to me. I owe a lot to Malcolm in the sense that he’s put a lot of faith in me without putting pressure on me to deliver results straight away. He’s allowed me to learn and take my own time."
“But I think a lot of my approach and my mindset has been developed with my dad, to be honest. He was the one who’d plan the way for me to approach events. Obviously it was expensive and finance was an issue, but I think with the resources we had, he pointed me in the best possible direction to go and it was successful.”
Reason Three – He keeps his ego in check
Make no mistake – for a young driver coming into a top team, it’s tough. You want to show your speed and prove that you can roll with the big boys. But trying to roll with the boy boys can often lead to rolling into ditches – not a good look! What’s been remarkable about Elfyn’s career so far, though, is the lack of mistakes.
“I think in some ways, I’ve been fortunate to be in a position to do that. I’ve not had pressure from Malcolm asking me to get podiums or whatever. I think as time goes on, it’s more and more difficult to be disciplined to finish events, to come to places and not be competitive. You always feel a bit frustrated that you’re not at the cutting edge. But I acknowledge and the people around me acknowledge that I’m still learning.
We’ve got to learn how to go fast for the whole rally
“We’ve always gone with the mentality that if I’m not comfortable, I don’t push, because that’s normally when the mistakes happen, so it’s better to just get the experience. But in the future, we’ve got to learn how to go fast for the whole of the rally, not just for a few stages.”
Reason Four – He’s already bagged his first podium
While luck in Argentina may have helped Elfyn onto the rostrum, he still had to make sure that his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS was in the running to be able to capitalise on that luck – not an easy task in the tough, rocky Argentinian conditions. And never underestimate how important a podium is for the confidence of a young driver.
“It keeps building my momentum in this year’s championship,” says Elfyn. “We’ve had a fairly solid start to the year, a couple of small mistakes in the first two rounds, so I was keen on the two difficult events [Mexico and Argentina] to not make any mistakes and that’s obviously paid off.”
Reason Five – He’s only going to get faster
While Elfyn’s let himself be kept on a fairly short rein in the first year and a bit of his top-level career, his plan is to now start building in the speed to his growing experience. Getting behind the wheel of his majorly updated Fiesta RS WRC at Rally de Portugal next week should help matters as well.
“I still feel I’ve got a lot to improve. I can see that from the results and the times, but also I can just feel it myself. Obviously the goal is to win eventually but that’s not going to happen just like that and you have to remain disciplined and try and do it in a structured way."
“I’m not going to say ‘Right, we’ll flip the switch now’ and go flat-out at every event. I just have to keep progressing and hopefully by the end of this year, we can be serious contenders for podiums and heading towards running at the front.”
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