Dani Sordo couldn’t have made it any clearer.
Looking ahead to a 19th start on his home round of the World Rally Championship, Rally Spain, with the potential of that being his last ever WRC event, Sordo had set himself criteria for what could sway his decision to call it quits after 2022 or keep going into 2023.
“I like to drive, I like to fight, I like to drive fast and have fun, to fight with these guys, no?” he told DirtFish.
“I don’t come here to just stay and wait for the others to break their cars or whatever; the feeling when you are fast and make good times, this is the good feeling.
“Until I [don’t] have this, I can drive a little bit [more]. If you are not performing well, I will not do anymore. Let’s see.
“After Catalunya, we decide.”
Well, as it happens Sordo will have, at the very least, one more event in the WRC as Hyundai’s decision not to extend its agreement with Oliver Solberg automatically booked Sordo on the jumbo to Japan.
So any decision he was planning to make after Rally Spain has likely been put on hold anyway with just a couple of weeks between the end of one rally week and another one starting again.
But it still stands as a valid question for us to answer: did Sordo meet the criteria he set himself for Rally Spain?
Despite the epic run of successive third place finishes – which did ultimately come to an end in Spain – the big weakness of Sordo’s 2022 has been how long it’s taken him to come alive.
On Fridays, he has tended to be in touch but not quite as quick as he feels he should have been with his preferable road position on gravel.
It was a similar story in Spain – the speed wasn’t bad, but it did take him a while to warm up. That frankly epic stage win on El Montmell 2 was the ultimate proof of what Sordo is capable of , but we just didn’t see quite enough of it for him to make a major impression on the leaderboard.
A puncture did peg him back, but those immediately around him suffered the same fate, so fifth overall was the best Sordo could manage.
“It’s not the best but it is like it is,” Sordo confessed. “But we are happy to be at the end of the rally to enjoy the stages with the car.
“Of course, we would like to be more on the podium here but it was like this.”
It would be easy to look at Sordo’s Spanish result and immediately assume that, at crunch time, this was his poorest performance of the year, but in fairness to Sordo circumstances somewhat played against him in Spain.
Sordo’s driving was at a similar level to what it has been all year, but there was less attrition throughout the Spain weekend and his experience deficit (it was just his fourth start in a Rally1 car) wasn’t offset by any road position advantage.
If anything, he was at a disadvantage running later in the order on Friday, facing some quite messy cuts with dirt pulled out from those ahead.
Asked if there was anything missing from the car, or if he himself simply wasn’t fast enough, Sordo was pragmatic.
“Of course both,” he said.
“I didn’t get used to the car really fast at the beginning, but also the other guys, they were pushing really hard too and the gaps at the end they were very, very close.
“We lost a lot of time on the first day but other than that it was close but we give [it our] all.”
Sordo didn’t look like a driver who’s fallen out of love with the WRC during Rally Spain, but it’s equally clear that competing so sporadically isn’t allowing him to get the best out of himself.
On balance then, Sordo failed to meet his own personal criteria. But with the driver market quite spectacularly exploding with Ott Tänak’s decision to walk out of his Hyundai deal 12 months early, that may now count for very little.
Sordo has simply no interest in being a full-time WRC driver anymore. For years he’s been a part-time presence and for years it’s worked for him. But Hyundai doesn’t need him to be around for a full season, it just needs him to do the job he is still capable of doing for some of the season in a third car.
And with Solberg now gone, if Sordo were to return next year his program would likely be larger as there’s not the same need to give a young talent relevant experience anymore given Hyundai’s change of policy.
Given Sordo’s main 2022 struggle has been adapting to the car, this could well improve Sordo’s speed and therefore boost his morale.
Reports in the Spanish media suggest Sordo has been offered as many as eight rounds in what’s believed to be a 14-round season next year, and realistically why would he turn this down?
Sordo has been fiercely loyal to Hyundai, so if it wants him he’s very likely to keep going. He may be turning 40 next year, but Sébastien Loeb has proved this year that age is but a number when it comes to WRC success.
Had Tänak not left Hyundai and Hyundai was in the market for just one driver instead of two, maybe convincing Sordo – who’s got a growing interest in rally-raid – to stay would’ve been a trickier task.
But knowing he can still cut it, and knowing he would be making the hole even deeper for his team, Sordo is too selfless a character to walk away – even if, deep down, that was his preferred option.
Publicly anyway, the stance remains the same. Next year? He’s not sure.
“I don’t know yet,” Sordo said. “We need to decide and see what we have.”
But it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Hyundai isn’t pulling out all the stops to keep Sordo for one more year. He’s too valuable an asset to lose in such a volatile situation. And as for Sordo, there’s no better feeling than being wanted, is there?
