Hayden Paddon

Hayden Paddon

Hayden Paddon at the 2015 Rally Poland
Personal information
Nationality	New Zealander
Born	(1987-04-20) 20 April 1987 Geraldine, New Zealand
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2007–2019, 2022
Co-driver	John Kennard Sebastian Marshall
Teams	Hyundai World Rally Team, M-Sport World Rally Team, Pirelli Star Driver
Rallies	82
Championships	0
Rally wins	1
Podiums	8
Stage wins	38
Total points	414
First rally	2007 Rally New Zealand
First win	2016 Rally Argentina
Last win	2016 Rally Argentina
Last rally	2022 Rally New Zealand

Hayden Paddon (born 20 April 1987) is a New Zealand rally driver. He was PWRC world champion in 2011 and won the New Zealand Rally Championship in 2008, 2009, 2013, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2023 he became the first non-European to be crowned European Rally Champion. Following that up by retaining the European Rally Championship title in 2024 and winning the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.

Career

Paddon driving at the 2015 Rally de Portugal.

Paddon was introduced into motorsport at an early age, his father Chris being a rally driver, beginning his career competing in karting. He competed in his first rally in 2002, at the age of 15. In 2005, he rolled and burnt his car in Rally Canterbury 2005. In 2006 he began competing in the New Zealand Rally Championship in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII, winning both the Junior and Rookie titles. In 2007 he made his World Rally Championship debut competing in the Production World Rally Championship category at his home event in New Zealand as a wildcard entry, and then in the Team Jordan entry for Rally GB. In the New Zealand championship he retained his Junior title and came within a point of winning the championship outright. In 2008 he competed in a new Mitsubishi Evo IX, winning the New Zealand title. He also finished 13th overall and fourth in PWRC on his home round of the WRC.

In 2009 he retained his New Zealand title, won the Pacific Cup, and also qualified for the Pirelli Star Driver Asia-Pacific final at the 2009 Rally Australia. Paddon was the fastest of the drivers on the opening day's stages, meaning he won the Pirelli Star Driver scholarship, giving him a fully funded programme for six events of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. Paddon's event got even better when he finished ninth overall, ahead of all of the PWRC regulars. Paddon also won a $50,000 International Rising Stars Scholarship run by Rally of New Zealand, giving him the additional funding needed to complete a full 2010 PWRC campaign in addition to the PSD events.

In 2010, Paddon won the PWRC category of Rally New Zealand in his own Evo IX, finishing 14th overall. He then finished third and second in PWRC on Rally Finland and Rallye Deutschland in the Pirelli Star Driver Evo X.

In 2011, Paddon contested a full PWRC season, consisting of 6 Rounds; Portugal, Argentina, Finland, Australia, Spain and GB. He competed under his newly formed team New Zealand World Rally Team and in a surprising move, Paddon switched to a Subaru for the 2011 season, as he had usually run in a Mitsubishi. Paddon drove a STR11 Subaru Impreza N4 run by Belgian Team Symtech Racing. Paddon's 2011 season proved to be a breakthrough as he took 1st place in four rallies consecutively: Portugal, Argentina, Finland and Australia, where he became 2011 P-WRC Champion.

The 2012 season saw Paddon move to the S-WRC championship in a Škoda Fabia S2000. After a 4th place among the S-WRC finishers in Sweden, he took his first S-WRC win in his second rally in the car at 2012 Rally de Portugal, which saw many competitors, including Paddon, have breakdowns.

2014 saw Paddon's first stage win in the World Rally Championship during the Rally Catalunya in Spain.

In 2015, Paddon took his first ever lead of a WRC event in the Rally d'Italia. Paddon was the first New Zealander to lead a World Rally Championship event since Possum Bourne held the lead in the 1999 Rally New Zealand and the first one to do so outside of his country. He finished second overall, behind Sébastien Ogier, after a careful performance and many stage wins.

In 2016, on the 4th round, the YPF Rally Argentina, Paddon took his - and New Zealand's - first WRC win by 13.3 seconds from Sébastien Ogier. His co-driver, John Kennard also became the oldest co-driver to win a WRC round at 57 years of age. Notably and perhaps controversially he celebrated the victory with a black and silver fern flag rather than the flag of New Zealand, following the failed flag referendum held earlier in the year. His intent was to distinguish the New Zealand flag from the Australian flag, where confusions still exists, even when, at the time of the victory, he was not competing against Australian drivers or co-drivers.

In the first rally of 2017, the 2017 Monte Carlo Rally, Paddon crashed out on the first stage, losing control of his Hyundai. A spectator was killed in the incident having been hit by the right rear of Paddon's car. Although Paddon's car was not severely damaged and could have continued, the Hyundai team withdrew Paddon from the rally as a mark of respect. Prior to round 6 in Portugal, Paddon's long-time co-driver John Kennard decided to retire through injury, and he was replaced by Briton Sebastian Marshall. Overall, Paddon endured a frustrating season, picking up just two podiums in Poland and Australia. He led round 7 in Italy, until retiring late on day 2 after hitting a bank and breaking his right rear suspension.

In October 2020. Hayden Paddon and Hyundai New Zealand reveals one of the worlds first EV rally cars, based on the Hyundai Kona. Paddon both organised and won the 2020 inaugural Ben Nevis Station Golden 1200 hillclimbing event in Central Otago, where he was driving a specially prepared Hyundai i20 called the AP4++ with a custom 2.1L turbo 4 cylinder engine making 800 hp.

In March 2022, Hayden Paddon teamed up with Hyundai New Zealand to enter a car into WRC2. The car will be run by Hyundai New Zealand Rally, with the previously established team of engineers, technician and team management. Hayden managed to fight off many international drivers to win the WRC2 class in his home country.

Hayden Paddon, John Kennard, and BRC Team Winning 2024 ERC Championship

In 2023 Hayden Paddon joined the Italian BRC Racing Team, and with the support of Hyundai New Zealand and Pirelli Tyres, put a 2023 European Rally Championship together. Winning the first event of the season in Portugal, Hayden and John Kennard fought their way to a maiden European Rally Championship Title, becoming the first non-european driver to win said championship. Hayden also fought on his home grounds to win the 2023 New Zealand Rally Championship.

2024 saw Hayden and John Kennard put together another European Rally Championship title fight in the BRC Racing Team with the support of Hyundai New Zealand, Pirelli Tyres, and HMS Customer Racing. Hayden and John had a tough fight throughout the season, taking their first and only win of the season at round 7 in Rali Ceredigion. Fighting off title fights from Mathieu Franceschi and Mikolaj Marczyk, Hayden managed to win back-to-back European Rally Championships. Hayden also managed to win the 2024 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship with up and coming New Zealand co-driver Jared Hudson.

WRC victories

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	36° Rally Argentina	2016	John Kennard	Hyundai i20 WRC

ERC victories

#	Event	Season	Co-Driver	Car
1	Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras	2023	John Kennard	Hyundai i20 N Rally2
2	Rali Ceredigion	2024	John Kennard	Hyundai i20 N Rally2

Results

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
2007	Paddon Direct Green Team	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	GRE	FIN	GER	NZL 49						NC	0
	Team Jordan	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX												ESP	FRA	JPN	IRE	GBR Ret
2008	Paddon Direct Green Team	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	JOR	ITA	GRE	TUR	FIN	GER	NZL 12	ESP	FRA	JPN	GBR		NC	0
2009	Hayden Paddon	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	IRE	NOR	CYP	POR	ARG	ITA	GRE	POL	FIN	AUS 9	ESP	GBR					NC	0
2010	Pirelli Star Driver	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	SWE	MEX	JOR	TUR 26		POR 20	BUL	FIN 21	GER 19		FRA 35	ESP	GBR 19				NC	0
	Hayden Paddon	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX					NZL 14					JPN 12
2011	New Zealand World Rally Team	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	SWE	MEX	POR 11	JOR	ITA	ARG 9	GRE	FIN 19	GER	AUS 6	FRA	ESP 34					18th	10
	Hayden Paddon	Subaru Impreza STi R4													GBR 13
2012	Hayden Paddon	Škoda Fabia S2000	MON	SWE 23	MEX	POR 16	ARG	GRE	NZL 12	FIN Ret	GER	GBR 26	FRA Ret	ITA	ESP 20				NC	0
2013	Hayden Paddon	Škoda Fabia S2000	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	ITA	FIN 11	GER 8	AUS 17	FRA		GBR				18th	8
	Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta RS WRC												ESP 8
2014	Hyundai Motorsport N	Hyundai i20 WRC	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA 12	POL 8	FIN 8	GER	AUS 6	FRA	ESP 9	GBR 10				14th	19
2015	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 WRC	MON	SWE 5								AUS 5			GBR 5				9th	84
	Hyundai Motorsport N				MEX 17	ARG 16	POR 8	ITA 2	POL 4	FIN Ret	GER 9		FRA 5	ESP 6
2016	Hyundai Motorsport N	Hyundai i20 WRC	MON 25		MEX 5	ARG 1					GER 5	CHN C	FRA 6	ESP 4	GBR 4				4th	138
	Hyundai Motorsport			SWE 2			POR Ret	ITA Ret	POL 3	FIN 5						AUS 4
2017	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	MON Ret	SWE 7	MEX 5	FRA 6	ARG 6	POR Ret	ITA Ret	POL 2	FIN Ret	GER 8	ESP	GBR 8	AUS 3				8th	74
2018	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	MON	SWE 5	MEX	FRA	ARG	POR Ret	ITA 4	FIN 4	GER	TUR 3	GBR 7	ESP	AUS 2				8th	73
2019	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA	ARG	CHL	POR	ITA	FIN WD	GER	TUR		ESP	AUS C			NC	0
		Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II												GBR 38
2022	Hayden Paddon	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	MON	SWE	CRO	POR	ITA	KEN	EST Ret	FIN 11	BEL	GRE	NZL 6	ESP	JPN				21st	8

PWRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	PWRC	Points
2007	Paddon Direct Team Green	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII	MON	SWE	ARG	GRE	NZL 17	JPN	IRE			NC	0
	Team Jordan	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX								GBR Ret
2008	Paddon Direct Team Green	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SWE	ARG	GRE	TUR	FIN	NZL 4	JPN	GBR		21st	5
2010	Pirelli Star Driver	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SWE	MEX	JOR	NZL 1			JPN 2			3rd	97
		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X					FIN 3	GER 2		FRA 7	GBR 3
2011	Hayden Paddon	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	SWE	POR 1	ARG 1	FIN 1	AUS 1	ESP 8	GBR			1st	104

SWRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	SWRC	Points
2012	Hayden Paddon	Škoda Fabia S2000	MON	SWE 4	POR 1	NZL 1	FIN Ret	GBR 7	FRA Ret	ESP 5	4th	78

WRC-2 results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Pos.	Points
2013	Hayden Paddon	Škoda Fabia S2000	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	ITA	FIN 3	GER 3	AUS 5	FRA	ESP	GBR	13th	40
2022	Hayden Paddon	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	MON	SWE	CRO	POR	ITA	KEN	EST Ret	FIN 3	BEL	GRE	NZL 1	ESP	JPN	10th	43

WRC-2 Pro results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points
2019	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA	ARG	CHL	POR	ITA	FIN	GER	TUR	GBR 4	ESP	AUS	8th	12

European Rally Championship results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
2013	Symtech Racing	Ford Fiesta S2000	JÄN	LIE	CAN	AZO	COR	YPR Ret	ROM	ZLÍ	POL	CRO	SAN	VAL	62nd	5
2022	Paddon Rallysport	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	AZO1	AZO2	CAN	POL	LAT 6	ITA	CZE	ESP					29th	15
2023	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	PRT 1	CAN 2	POL 2	LAT 2	SWE 2	ITA 3	CZE Ret	HUN					1st	163
2024	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	HUN 4	CAN 6	SWE 3	EST 5	ITA 6	CZE 12	GBR 1	POL 3					1st	145

External links

• Official website
• Paddon Rallysport