From the outside looking in, the most obvious improvement is the powerstage.
While last year Elfyn Evans picked up 35 points from the final stages of each event, this year he amassed 43 and scored at least one point on every single powerstage.
But was that the secret in his world championship success?
Scott Martin is far better qualified than us to answer that question, and did so when he joined host David Evans on DirtFish’s weekly podcast SPIN, The Rally Pod.
Martin feels the biggest difference in Evans this season was confidence, especially with running first on the road.
That can be traced back to last season, when Ott Tänak took the championship lead following his second place finish in Estonia.
Tänak's struggles from first on the road in Finland showed Evans he wasn't doing a bad job
That put the Estonian first on the road in Finland, and gave Evans the clarity he needed that the job he had relentlessly been doing on gravel rounds wasn’t so bad.
“I just think we were just faster from the get go because of what we’d learnt in the previous year,” Martin explained.
“I think he saw people that were you know, hot-shotted into first on the road for an event struggle as well. Because you can start to doubt yourself and doubt that you’re actually doing the optimum and being the most efficient and doing the best.
“But we had drivers take the role for an event this year [Oliver Solberg in Sweden and Takamoto Katsuta in Gran Canaria]. Also last year we saw like the likes of Ott Tänak in Finland who, you know, we were able to take time out of him being second on the road.
“That was a big confidence boost, because Ott can sometimes do some special things and, you know, throw away the rule book or the formulas that we all think are what you will lose.
“So there were just moments through last year and this year where, you know, you can see that the struggle is real. And it’s a given, when you open the road or when you’re second or third, the guys behind are gain an advantage over you.
“But when you do it for so long you sometimes think: ‘Am I doing enough?’ But yeah, I think you gained a lot of confidence from moments like this and yeah, just worked incredibly hard and tried to get everything right.”
Evans’ championship record with Toyota is well known, having finished second five times in six seasons prior to clinching this year’s world title.
Martin feels his perseverance to keep going, despite the setbacks and near misses, was finally rewarded.
“I guess he seems a lot stronger in the mind,” he said, “through confidence and not letting this first on the road business get to him too much. And not wasting any energy on it or complaining too much.
“He just seemed to get on with the job in hand.”
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