The key to Elfyn Evans securing the World Rally Championship crown was not solely rooted in his remarkable powerstage improvements, but rather in a massive surge of self-belief. Throughout the season, the Welsh driver amassed 43 points from the final stages of each event—improving upon his 35 points from the previous year—while successfully scoring at least a point on every single powerstage.
However, those statistics only scratch the surface of the hard work happening behind the scenes. According to co-driver Scott Martin during an appearance on DirtFish’s weekly podcast SPIN, The Rally Pod, the real breakthrough this season was confidence, particularly when dealing with the demanding task of running first on the road.
That mental clarity can be traced back to last season when Ott Tanak took the championship lead following his second-place finish in Estonia. Tanak's struggles while opening the road in Finland provided Evans with the reassurance that the relentless work he had been putting in on gravel rounds was actually on par with the best.
Martin explained that seeing a driver of Tanak's caliber—someone capable of throwing away the rulebook and achieving special feats—struggling from the front gave their crew a massive confidence boost. It proved that losing time at the front of the pack is an inevitable dynamic rather than a personal driving failure.
"I just think we were just faster from the get go because of what we’d learnt in the previous year," Martin explained on the podcast, highlighting Evans' improved mental fortitude, resilience, and refusal to waste energy complaining about road-opening duties.
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