As an opener, the question went on far too long. This time next week, Elfyn Evans will be back in the heat of a battle to find a path to the top of the world. After a year of twists and turns, it’s 13 down, one to run. Three days. One rally. One winner. One world champion.
With all that in mind, Elfyn Evans, is this a normal week?
There’s a pause. And another. Followed by a sigh.
“Yeah.”
In a word, laconic. One word. And even that might be one more than was strictly necessary.
Were I talking to pretty much anybody else in the World Rally Championship, I might have questioned such candour. But not with Evans. He’s as down-to-earth as they come. But come on, this time in a couple of weeks… you could be a world champion.
He considers the pause thing again, but senses it won’t wash. It won’t.
Evans has gone about his own business quietly in 2025 - that won't change next week
“It’s very open,” he said. “I think it can definitely go either way very easily, so the focus is only to just go there, do the best we can and see what happens. Yeah, of course, there might be a need for some kind of strategy, maybe at some point during the rally – depending on what happens or if something happens.”
He thinks harder, then adds thoughtfully: “Hopefully it’ll be a clean fight and that’s it, you know.”
I’m talking to Elfyn within a day or two of him getting his first sight of the Rally Saudi Arabia route – he’s just been watching the organizers’ videos of next week’s stages. It’s fair to say they’ve provided some seriously sobering viewing.
“There’s a lot of rocks just on the side of the road… everywhere,” he said. “I think it has to be an element of keeping the car in the middle of the road. There’s one video dated yesterday with quite a few mud holes and stuff like they’ve had rain and there’s some damage to the roads. I don’t know whether they’re planning to repair the roads between now and the start of the recce.
“But at least we can work through the videos. There’s nothing like seeing it with your own eyes, so you have to just wait and see what it’s like when we get out there.”
You can sense the frustration in Evans’ voice. Like those around him in the Toyota team, he’s a perfectionist. He’s somebody who does all he can to dial out unpredictability and lock in knowledge and understanding of every inch of the road ahead.
Next week represents one of the biggest steps into the unknown in the modern history of the World Rally Championship.
Yes, there was a candidate event in May, but the stages have been through a summer since then. And there will have been changes.
“It’s always a bit of the case with these long-haul events,” he smiled thinly. “It’s always a bit of a guess – especially when you haven’t got anything to work on. At least when you’ve been somewhere before, you have an idea of what you need from the car.
“I guess for the set-up, it’s going to be something we’ve got from, kind of Greece, Sardinia-type stages. Some parts of it look particularly twisty.”
Can he look forward to it?
Evans faces the same challenge as everyone: finding the right setup for a new rally without a specific test
“I don’t know, is the answer,” Evans offered, candidly. “I’d better reserve any judgments until we’re there. I mean, it just looks like all these loose rocks and stuff could be… I think the word ‘lottery’ has been used a lot, but it does look a little bit like that. Let’s wait and see how it is. You know, I don’t know whether it’s going to be any worse than some sections of Safari, for example.
“It’s not a rally like, what could we describe it? It’s not like a Latvia – where you can bounce off every bank or whatever, you know. It’s definitely a rally where you’re going to be keeping the car more in the middle of the road. That’s sure.”
But with just three points between him and the chasing Sébastien Ogier (and 24 in hand over Kalle Rovanperä), is there any potential for a strategic approach? Is it risk-all?
“I would be surprised if you get away with risking all,” he replied. “It looks like there’s something on every corner, you know. If you’re a bit too greedy on the inside or the outside… but, you still have to do as well as you can in the conditions you have – it’s what rallying is about.”
None of this, of course, is new to Evans. Rewind five years and he was bound for Monza and the mountains at the top of the table and looking to stay there for one more rally. The gap was 11 points in 2020. It didn’t end well for the Welshman.
Evans has led the championship into the finale before - but it didn't end well
“I’ve not thought about that side of it that much,” he said, looking back to 2020. “In many ways, it’s easier to go with little to no gap. Obviously, when I was in that position with quite a lot of points before [in 2020], I still remember the case that if I finished two or three places behind Séb then it still wasn’t enough if he was taking the full powerstage points.
“There’s no point thinking about it too much. We know that the points gap is close, so it just means we have to go and do what we can to obviously outscore him – and Kalle, of course – and that’s it. It’s as simple as that. We know what we have to focus on.”
And that focus has to be on the man who’s already lifted eight world championships. Ogier was Evans’ nemesis in 2020 and 2021. The Frenchman’s not had a bad run this year.
“He’s had a brilliant season,” said Evans, “and he’s performing well. That’s just what you’re up against, you know, it’s a world championship. You have to do what you can and see what comes.”
While Ogier’s program beyond the end of this season remains undecided in terms of which WRC rounds he’ll do after January’s Monte Carlo, Evans is going nowhere. He will start his seventh full campaign with Toyota in 2026, but he’s aware the landscape is changing. With Rovanperä going racing and Ott Tänak staying at home, the next generation of drivers is coming (if it’s fair to label Oliver Solberg as the next generation…).
Is he ready to stay and fight?
Evans and Ogier's rivalry is underpinned by respect - but only one man can win
“Of course,” he replied, “I’m not getting any younger and there will be youngsters coming through, but so long as I can still perform, I’ll probably stick at it for a little while yet!”
That’s the longer-term. For now, it’s all eyes on Saudi next week.
As you’ll have seen on DirtFish, we’ve been busy time travelling across the last three decades, looking through the lens of 1995 at Colin McRae becoming Britain’s first ever World Rally champion. Three decades on, another Brit at the top of the tree would offer a degree of symmetry?
“I wasn’t aware of that,” he smiled, not interested in taking any of that historical bait. “I think it was Séb that suggested that it would be nice to go to the RAC for the final round…”
Undoubtedly, a late fall run through his own backyard would make for a more comfortable finale next week. But regardless of where he goes, Evans knows that, to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. That’s what next week’s all about.
