Co-Driver’s Corner with Martijn Wydaeghe: Latvia

Poland was quite a challenging event for us, especially the first day. There was a huge amount of cleaning right from the first stage and that cost us a lot of time immediately. We also struggled a bit with the car set-up, which meant Thierry didn’t have the confidence to push in some places. We just tried to limit the damage and stay in a good position for Saturday and Sunday, which was not easy.

On some stages we had a better feeling and could attack a bit stronger, and we had a good fight with Mārtiņš Sesks. Unfortunately, we just lost out on fifth position to him on Saturday by just one-tenth, which cost us two championship points and a better start position for Sunday.

Our main goal for Sunday was to score good points, especially on the Wolf Power Stage. Ott [Tänak] did a very good job in the first stage, leaving us no chance to fight for a top position in the Super Sunday classification, but we gave it everything on the Power Stage and it paid off with another fastest time.

So far this season we’ve scored 28 out of a possible 35 points on Power Stages, making us the best Power Stage performers this year. That’s part of a strategy this year: cleaning the road on Friday means limited chances to score big points, so Super Sunday and the Power Stage are very important.

Between rallies, I had the chance to visit the Tour de France. Invited by Belgian television, I watched the riders battling French and attended a talkshow about cycling in the evening. It was interesting to see things from a different perspective, not just as a competitor. The organisation and logistics of the Tour de France are quite similar to the WRC, and I now have even more respect for the cyclists. If I wasn’t a co-driver, maybe I could have been a professional cyclist!

We’re more than halfway through the year now, and there’s a big fight among the drivers, especially the top three. Currently, Thierry and I are 15 points ahead of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, while our team-mates Ott and Martin [Järveoja] are only six points further back in third. We are leading the championships for drivers, co-drivers, and manufacturers, which shows we are working well as a team and scoring the maximum points for Hyundai Motorsport.

Despite the rivalry on the stages, the relationship between all the crews outside the cars is quite relaxed and, like everywhere in life, there are always some people you are closer to.

We have a WhatsApp group called ‘The Big Five International Summit,’ which includes myself, Scotty Martin, Jonne Halttunen, Aaron Johnston and Janne Ferm. We created this group after we went on a safari before last year’s rally in Kenya. We spent a couple of days together and decided that each year we will organise a trip related to a rally. This year we’re still deciding our next event, but will possibly be Chile.

It looks like Latvia could be another quite challenging event for us. We have five different stages on Friday, which means we have a lot of cleaning to do. That will be hard for us, definitely, but that’s part and parcel of being first in the championship.

We’ll approach it with the same strategy as always, trying to limit the time loss on Friday and concentrating on climbing up the classification on Saturday. There is 64km of action on Sunday so hopefully we can be in a good starting position by then to maximise the points.

See you on the stages!
Martijn