Elfyn Evans says last month’s Rally Estonia has brought about a change of thinking in his desire to land a maiden World Rally Championship title.
The Welshman’s lackluster fifth place frustrated him and cost him more ground in his pursuit of series leader and Toyota team-mate Sébastien Ogier. But it also got him thinking about the way he goes about his craft.
Evans finished fourth in Estonia last season, coming to the event just a week after crashing heavily on the South Estonia Rally. He admits he was wary of a second consecutive shunt last year and now feels he has to consider a change of attitude.
“I don’t think Estonia this year had anything to do with crashing at South Estonia Rally,” he told DirtFish.
“But it’s always been in my mind that I don’t want two accidents in a row. Now, at this stage in my career, maybe I need to shake that off a little bit and just get on with it.
“It’s not just about taking more risks – if I’d done that [in Estonia] I’m not sure how much faster I would’ve been. I just wasn’t hitting the nail on the head in terms of my rhythm; there wasn’t quite the finesse. It wasn’t – I don’t think – like I was lifting a lot more in places compared to other drivers.”
Our analysis of Evans' Estonia extertion
Check out the DirtFish take on why Elfyn Evans' 100th WRC event was his weakest in some time
With five rounds of this WRC campaign remaining, Evans knows better than anybody what he has to do to cut the 37-point deficit to Ogier.
“We know we have to be consistently winning, not consistently finishing to win championships.
“We’ve been just behind almost all year and we have to turn that tide around. The big points difference came with a mistake on Safari, when he won the rally and banked powerstage points as well. If you subtract that total away from the gap, it would look far more healthy [for us].”
