So now we know what Sebastien Ogier really thinks of the World Rally Championship's newest winner Hayden Paddon.
The Frenchman left his Kiwi rival in no doubt when the pair traded views on running-order regulations in Argentina last Saturday night.
Paddon had questioned the sense in opening the debate to the watching world in Villa Carlos Paz. Not unreasonably, he probably thought the South Americans were more keen to hear about the monumental fight lying in wait on the final day.
Ogier disagreed. The touchpaper was lit.
This was a side of Ogier we caught a glimpse of in Portugal last year, when he turned his ire on the FIA. His team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was, you may remember, caught in the crossfire.
At such times of high emotion, Ogier cares little for collateral damage. He's only interested in venting his spleen.
That's what Saturday night was about. He'd endured two days running first on the road in the worst of the conditions, and the reward for some of the best driving in his illustrious and decorated career? Half a minute behind a bloke who's benefitted from his adversity.
So when Paddon ventured the view that the rules were right, is it any wonder Ogier exploded? Exploded being the generally accepted verb (even by those closest to him) for what happened in the centre of the service park.
The location for the spat could have been better chosen, but I'm afraid I can find no fault with Ogier's sentiment and passion.
All too often drivers in the World Rally Championship are too quick to consult with their PR before answering a question. And when they do speak their mind, there's usually a bit of a rethink a few hours later, followed by a text asking if there's any chance of tweaking the copy.
How dull.
Ogier says what he thinks. Some see Volkswagen's inability to 'control' Ogier as a weakness. I don't. More of the same, please.
Paddon and Kris Meeke - and Mads Ostberg on occasion - are the other drivers willing to offer worthy opinion. Thierry Neuville used to, but he's a bit preoccupied sorting his career out right now.
The rest of the drivers are too concerned about treading on toes to deviate from the script.
How times have changed. I well remember tuning in to rants from the likes of Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. Claire Caudwell, Richard Burns' former PA, used to round up hacks when Burnsie had a bee in his bonnet.
What distinguished the likes of McRae, Burns and Sainz is that they had complete confidence in themselves and their contracts. They'd been around a while and weren't willing to tolerate any nonsense. If they disagreed, they disagreed and left others to pick the bones out.
These days, the all-powerful PRs dictate interviews to the extent that talk of anything a driver has done before joining their current employer is frowned upon.
Ogier is old school. But that doesn't stop his PR Ingo Roersch regularly trying to shove the pin back into a grenade that his man has just lobbed the way of the media.
Granted, he's doing his job trying to protect the image of Ogier and their mutual employer, but there's a danger of strangling this sport of charisma.
The WRC needs opinion. It needs friction.
The Ogier-Paddon ding-dong was nothing compared with what we've seen down the years. Gilles Panizzi versus Francois Delecour, anybody? Without intervention, the two Frenchmen would probably still be scrapping now. And they were in the same team.
And then there's the classic Brit battle between Burns and McRae. Ultimately, they were mates - good mates – but when there was a Saturday night-style spike, make no mistake there was serious animosity and a full and frank exchange of views.
I have nothing but admiration for Ogier's ruthlessly competitive streak. He has steel running right through him; he simply won't bend. If he feels justified in his quarrel, nothing will get him to deviate.
The world champion craves the thing every sportsman desires: a fair fight.
Unfortunately for Ogier that's impossible in this sport, where the corners change with the passing of every car.
And somebody has to run first on the road on gravel rallies.
Who should that be? Should we penalise the fastest driver in the fastest car or the slowest driver in the slowest car? Common sense and commercial reality dictate the quick guy's going to cop it.
I agree with Ogier. The playing field should be billiard-table smooth. Ceteris paribus, we'd see who was the fastest driver (now more than ever given the tightness of technical regulations).
Right now, the results are skewed; success undoubtedly penalised.
From a sporting perspective, I don't see how anybody can like what we've got now. Drawing straws would be a preferable way to sorting the running order.
It is worth, however, pointing out that parity is achieved in some part across the spread of the season, with the championship leader benefitting from being first on the road on the asphalt events – of which we have one more with China this year.
That's the sport. Commercially speaking, what we have now is exactly what the World Rally Championship needs.
Sorry Sebastien, but such is your advantage in terms of hardware and pure pace, last week's Rally Argentina would have been a done deal at the end of day one. A wasted weekend, nothing to talk about.
The current regulations, however disagreeable to the purist and hard on the championship leader, delivered one of the most exciting finishes in the 43-year history of the world championship.
Ogier will never agree. The commercial good of the WRC is not his business. Beyond personal gain and recognition, why should he care about selling television? And personal gain and recognition, I'm pretty sure, aren't the reason he got into this sport. Ogier started rallying to drive a car from A to B faster than anybody else.
Ogier's pain is for the good of the championship. Final-stage thrillers can only ramp up interest in the WRC, and with that hike in coverage will come the kind of investment needed to take the championship to the next level. The next level means the kind of global recognition rallying deserves.
Global recognition means gilt-edged media rights and the world knocking at its door. At which point the promoter will have free rein to take the WRC to the best roads with the best backdrops (New Zealand) to make the best product.
In the short term Ogier's got to suck it up. His only option is the unthinkable: slow down, drop a win or two, let somebody else lead the championship, then drop the hammer from third or fourth on the road.
Theoretically, it could happen. Practically? Never.
What we do need more of is explosive debate. Drivers shouldn't be afraid to offer opinions.
Undoubtedly, Paddon and Meeke will tackle Ogier again. They might not yet be his equal in terms of rallies won and championships celebrated, but this is their place of work too.
Ogier presents a formidable character when you don't toe his line (trust me, I know), but Meeke and Paddon – like Ogier – have given just about everything they have to get where they are today and they're not willing to be railroaded.
As a counter to the negativity surrounding Ogier's true colours being shown on Saturday night, it's worth considering Sunday, when he showed another side: shaking hands with the heroic Paddon and wholeheartedly congratulated his rival on a job well done.
It's always going to stick in the throat of hard-edged sportsmen to admit somebody did it better than them. But Ogier swallowed that – and the previous evening's shenanigans – and did himself proud on Sunday.
As for Paddon, there can be no doubt he did himself and his nation proud on Sunday afternoon.
It's hard to think of a more hard-working or deserving winner. Much like Dungannon's finest (Meeke), who celebrated in similar fashion 12 months ago.
So now we know what Sebastien Ogier really thinks of the World Rally Championship's newest winner Hayden Paddon.
The Frenchman left his Kiwi rival in no doubt when the pair traded views on running-order regulations in Argentina last Saturday night.
Paddon had questioned the sense in opening the debate to the watching world in Villa Carlos Paz. Not unreasonably, he probably thought the South Americans were more keen to hear about the monumental fight lying in wait on the final day.
Ogier disagreed. The touchpaper was lit.
This was a side of Ogier we caught a glimpse of in Portugal last year, when he turned his ire on the FIA. His team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was, you may remember, caught in the crossfire.
At such times of high emotion, Ogier cares little for collateral damage. He's only interested in venting his spleen.
That's what Saturday night was about. He'd endured two days running first on the road in the worst of the conditions, and the reward for some of the best driving in his illustrious and decorated career? Half a minute behind a bloke who's benefitted from his adversity.
So when Paddon ventured the view that the rules were right, is it any wonder Ogier exploded? Exploded being the generally accepted verb (even by those closest to him) for what happened in the centre of the service park.
The location for the spat could have been better chosen, but I'm afraid I can find no fault with Ogier's sentiment and passion.
All too often drivers in the World Rally Championship are too quick to consult with their PR before answering a question. And when they do speak their mind, there's usually a bit of a rethink a few hours later, followed by a text asking if there's any chance of tweaking the copy.
How dull.
Ogier says what he thinks. Some see Volkswagen's inability to 'control' Ogier as a weakness. I don't. More of the same, please.
Paddon and Kris Meeke - and Mads Ostberg on occasion - are the other drivers willing to offer worthy opinion. Thierry Neuville used to, but he's a bit preoccupied sorting his career out right now.
The rest of the drivers are too concerned about treading on toes to deviate from the script.
How times have changed. I well remember tuning in to rants from the likes of Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. Claire Caudwell, Richard Burns' former PA, used to round up hacks when Burnsie had a bee in his bonnet.
What distinguished the likes of McRae, Burns and Sainz is that they had complete confidence in themselves and their contracts. They'd been around a while and weren't willing to tolerate any nonsense. If they disagreed, they disagreed and left others to pick the bones out.
These days, the all-powerful PRs dictate interviews to the extent that talk of anything a driver has done before joining their current employer is frowned upon.
Ogier is old school. But that doesn't stop his PR Ingo Roersch regularly trying to shove the pin back into a grenade that his man has just lobbed the way of the media.
Granted, he's doing his job trying to protect the image of Ogier and their mutual employer, but there's a danger of strangling this sport of charisma.
The WRC needs opinion. It needs friction.
The Ogier-Paddon ding-dong was nothing compared with what we've seen down the years. Gilles Panizzi versus Francois Delecour, anybody? Without intervention, the two Frenchmen would probably still be scrapping now. And they were in the same team.
And then there's the classic Brit battle between Burns and McRae. Ultimately, they were mates - good mates – but when there was a Saturday night-style spike, make no mistake there was serious animosity and a full and frank exchange of views.
I have nothing but admiration for Ogier's ruthlessly competitive streak. He has steel running right through him; he simply won't bend. If he feels justified in his quarrel, nothing will get him to deviate.
The world champion craves the thing every sportsman desires: a fair fight.
Unfortunately for Ogier that's impossible in this sport, where the corners change with the passing of every car.
And somebody has to run first on the road on gravel rallies.
Who should that be? Should we penalise the fastest driver in the fastest car or the slowest driver in the slowest car? Common sense and commercial reality dictate the quick guy's going to cop it.
I agree with Ogier. The playing field should be billiard-table smooth. Ceteris paribus, we'd see who was the fastest driver (now more than ever given the tightness of technical regulations).
Right now, the results are skewed; success undoubtedly penalised.
From a sporting perspective, I don't see how anybody can like what we've got now. Drawing straws would be a preferable way to sorting the running order.
It is worth, however, pointing out that parity is achieved in some part across the spread of the season, with the championship leader benefitting from being first on the road on the asphalt events – of which we have one more with China this year.
That's the sport. Commercially speaking, what we have now is exactly what the World Rally Championship needs.
Sorry Sebastien, but such is your advantage in terms of hardware and pure pace, last week's Rally Argentina would have been a done deal at the end of day one. A wasted weekend, nothing to talk about.
The current regulations, however disagreeable to the purist and hard on the championship leader, delivered one of the most exciting finishes in the 43-year history of the world championship.
Ogier will never agree. The commercial good of the WRC is not his business. Beyond personal gain and recognition, why should he care about selling television? And personal gain and recognition, I'm pretty sure, aren't the reason he got into this sport. Ogier started rallying to drive a car from A to B faster than anybody else.
Ogier's pain is for the good of the championship. Final-stage thrillers can only ramp up interest in the WRC, and with that hike in coverage will come the kind of investment needed to take the championship to the next level. The next level means the kind of global recognition rallying deserves.
Global recognition means gilt-edged media rights and the world knocking at its door. At which point the promoter will have free rein to take the WRC to the best roads with the best backdrops (New Zealand) to make the best product.
In the short term Ogier's got to suck it up. His only option is the unthinkable: slow down, drop a win or two, let somebody else lead the championship, then drop the hammer from third or fourth on the road.
Theoretically, it could happen. Practically? Never.
What we do need more of is explosive debate. Drivers shouldn't be afraid to offer opinions.
Undoubtedly, Paddon and Meeke will tackle Ogier again. They might not yet be his equal in terms of rallies won and championships celebrated, but this is their place of work too.
Ogier presents a formidable character when you don't toe his line (trust me, I know), but Meeke and Paddon – like Ogier – have given just about everything they have to get where they are today and they're not willing to be railroaded.
As a counter to the negativity surrounding Ogier's true colours being shown on Saturday night, it's worth considering Sunday, when he showed another side: shaking hands with the heroic Paddon and wholeheartedly congratulated his rival on a job well done.
It's always going to stick in the throat of hard-edged sportsmen to admit somebody did it better than them. But Ogier swallowed that – and the previous evening's shenanigans – and did himself proud on Sunday.
As for Paddon, there can be no doubt he did himself and his nation proud on Sunday afternoon.
It's hard to think of a more hard-working or deserving winner. Much like Dungannon's finest (Meeke), who celebrated in similar fashion 12 months ago.
