Martijn Wydaeghe talks us through the challenges of the next round of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship
It’s going to be a big weekend for the co-driver with perhaps the hardest surname to spell correctly in rallying. Martijn Wydaeghe headed to Chile knowing that his championship dream might just be about to get a lot closer. The fact that the 32-year old Belgian is in this position at all shows just how far he has come since first partnering Thierry Neuville in 2021. And he’s determined to make the most of this moment by harnessing all the local support he can find. “Motorsport is very popular in South America, especially Argentina, and Chile is not far away, so we have a lot of Argentinian fans,” he says. “You really feel their support and it influences your performance, as you want to be an example to them. Rallying would not exist without spectators, so we’re always very grateful to them.”
Thierry and Martijn finished runners-up in Chile last year, and they learned a lot. “We’ll use the momentum from last year to build for this year,” explains Martijn. “The stages can be quite tricky – fast but also narrow – and tyre management is key to success, as we saw last year. We’ll watch out for all the tricky places on the recce to try to avoid any mistakes in the rally.”
One of the other big challenges of Chile is the weather, as it’s rather chilly in the southern hemisphere at this time of year. “I didn’t realise that last year, so I just had summer clothes,” remembers Martijn. “This time I’ve brought jackets and jumpers, so I’m already one step ahead!”
In particular, it can be foggy: one of the most difficult conditions to navigate. “We can adapt the pace notes if we know there will be fog,” explains Martijn. “Sometimes we use short words instead of distances because it’s quicker to read, but in fog it’s really important to have the exact distances so you know how much speed you can carry, even if you see nothing, before you have to brake for the corner.”
Like always, it’s going to be mainly a question of keeping your cool this weekend. And even though Thierry and Martijn are at a decisive phase of the championship, they’re not going to do anything particularly different.
“Our strategy has been the same since Sweden when we were first leading the championship and opening the road,” says Martijn. “The aim is to finish the events with maximum points, without taking any unnecessary risks. Now that our lead is a little bit bigger, it’s really all about finishing and scoring some points to manage the advantage. Road conditions on Friday can be tricky for us so no risks, then we will see on Saturday and Sunday how we are doing and go from there. Maybe we can back off a little bit more if needed.”
And that’s really all that has changed.
The feeling in the car is exactly the same too. Martijn isn’t one of those people who complains about the jeopardy of running first on the road. “It’s nice to open the road as it means that we are leading,” he says. “It gives us an extra challenge and extra motivation to try to stay in first place. But we are clever enough to know that a lot can still happen; it’s a mechanical sport too so let’s just try and stay out of trouble. Our performance has on the whole always been there all year, and also quite consistent.”
Just as the engineers keep the car in optimal condition, Martijn also prepares his body for the rigours of Chile – after the longest trip from home of the season.
“You definitely need a couple of days to get rid of the jet lag, and part of that is staying busy during the day so you sleep properly at night,” he says. “I arrived on Saturday morning and we had good fun before the start of the recce, as Hyundai had organised a road trip with some influencers, going from to Santiago de Chile to Concepcion. Normally you just see the airport and the stages, so this was a nice change for us to discover the rest of the country. I even did a bit of surfing on the best beach in Chile!”
