Red Bull Motorsports
WRC
The final stage: Elfyn Evans on what's driven him to the brink of WRC glory
The 31-year-old Toyota driver is just one race and a complicated set of potential permutations away from becoming the first Welshman to win the WRC title. We take a look at what brought him here.
Calculating exactly what the Toyota driver has to do at Italy’s WRC finale is complicated. Does he know?
A wrinkled nose followed by a shake of the head make it clear the 31-year-old’s about as good at maths as we are.
But he does know. Of course he knows. Evans’s preparations for everything are beyond rigorous. The calculation issue comes with the curved ball of the five Power Stage bonus points.
Were it not for the potential for final-stage extras, Evans knows his 14-point lead could only be usurped by team-mate Sébastien Ogier if, for example, the Frenchman won in Lombardy and Elfyn finished lower than fourth.
Elfyn Evans on his way to victory at Rally Turkey
© Mahmut Cinci/Red Bull Content Pool
Sensing more equations might be thrown his way, the championship leader puts a stop to all that.
“I’m not thinking about any of that stuff,” he said. “I can’t. Like I couldn’t think about whether Monza was going to happen or not. Everybody was saying: 'It might be cancelled because of the pandemic…'
“I put all of that to one side and just focused on my preparations as normal. It’s all I could do. A couple of weeks out, I told the team I didn’t want to do any more interviews – except this one, obviously!
“I needed to get into rally mode.”
In truth, Elfyn Evans has been in rally mode from the moment he was born.
I knew, if I failed, I’d be back in the garage selling cars with the old man on Monday morning!
His father, Gwyndaf Evans, is a former British Rally Champion and a man who competed at the sport’s highest level with both Ford and SEAT. While Evans Sr was often left in the shadows of British rallying megastars as Colin McRae and Richard Burns, his boy has stepped out of any such darkness and now stands very much in the spotlight.
And it’s his father he has to thank for that. Being a family of motor traders, Evans knows you don’t change your car until you’re absolutely sure you’ve finished with the current model.
“Dad always told me that,” he said. “I was never allowed to move up to the next car until I was absolutely wringing the neck of the current car.”
Evans’s first season – 2006 – was spent in a Nissan Micra tackling Britain’s Formula 1000 series. After that he shifted to the more modern technology of Ford Fiestas, progressing through the car’s two-wheel drive evolutions as he progressed up the ladder of British rallying talent. The 2011 season brought a breakthrough, when he won a Pirelli-backed drive in Britain’s premier series. He finished second, but was now starting to show real speed.
And he’d stepped outside of his home series comfort zone. A visit to Rally Finland and France’s WRC counter in Alsace – where his pace was quite exceptional – were the highlights of 2011.
“I think Dad knew, by 2012, I had to take the step and have a look at WRC Academy (Junior WRC by another name),” said Elfyn.
Gwyndaf remembers it well. And remembers a ride alongside his son in Finland even better.
“Elfyn was testing,” he said. “I went in the car with him to have a look. That was when I knew. I came out of the car and I knew there was something special there. He had the speed and the commitment.”
By the end of the season, four rally wins secured him the WRC Academy title.
Evans has also won in the snow of Sweden this season
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Run by multiple world championship-winning team M-Sport, the WRC Academy offered a world championship prize drive in a Ford Fiesta R5. Now Evans was making serious progress. And his fast track was about to get even faster.
When Nasser Al-Attiyah couldn’t make the start of the 2013 Rally Italia, his factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC was handed to Evans. A debut at the sport’s highest level netted him sixth overall, a fine result following the sort of measured drive requested by M-Sport team principal Malcolm Wilson.
By the start of the following season, Evans had earned a full factory drive with M-Sport and continued to level his learning curve. In Corsica, 2015, Evans came within an ace of taking his first WRC win, eventually finishing second. A British title followed in 2016, when his WRC effort was blended with a home assault, but the breakthrough came with a Rally GB victory in 2017.
It doesn’t seem long since I was in that Micra… Or maybe I’m just telling myself that because I’m getting old!
Moving to Toyota for this season has brought more success, with wins in Sweden and Turkey leading him to the top of the table and a title tilt in Monza next week.
“It doesn’t seem long since I was in that Micra,” said Evans with a smile. “Or maybe I’m just telling myself that because I’m getting old!”
But the real secret was in his motivation.
“I knew, if I failed, I’d be back in the garage selling cars with the old man on Monday morning!”
