"We've just come back from a day's recce and been over a few of the stages," Paddon said from Mexico. "It's a bit different from a few weeks go when we were in the snow - it's lot warmer, that's for sure. The roads are looking good and are nice and flowing, which are my sort of roads.
"It's been good to get out there and see what it's all about. We're looking forward to the rally and will be pushing hard, but not to the extent that we make any mistakes.
"Since it's our first time racing here and it's still early in the season, we'll be doing things at our own speed before getting too carried away.
"That's the key for this weekend and, as you saw in Sweden, you never know what sort of result you can get."
Paddon and Kennard haven't contested the Mexican event before but aren't going into the rally completely blind.
His competitors will have a slight advantage having raced over the stages before, but Paddon was there last year and so has a base set of notes to work with.
"We're using the notes we took from last year as a start," he said. "Since Sweden we've been refining and fine-tuning the notes even more. The only drawback is we haven't driven with these notes at speed so we'll just have to visualise what that's going to be like.
"The idea, anyway, this early in the season, is to stay in the middle of the road, avoid the rocks and any problems. The rally [Mexico] sometimes has a high attrition rate so if we make it to the end we should be in a good position."
Being back in his own car does have an advantage - he and his crew have been developing the No20 car specifically for the Kiwi's driving style and needs. Although all three works i20s are similar, Paddon wasn't able to tune Sordo's car to his own liking, as the base setup was particular to the Spaniard's driving style.
"The cars are pretty much like for like, but it is good to be back in my baby," he said. "It's good to be able to have the flexibility to tune the car to the way I like it. We had a good test in Spain a week or two ago, which went really well and I've got a lot more confidence in the car at the moment."
Hyundai Motorsport have their usual team this weekend, with Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul in the No7 car, Dani Sordo back in action with co-driver Marc Marti in the No8 car and the Kiwis returning to their No20 car.
Despite being one of the more compact rallies of the season, teams tackle three of the longer stages in the championship - the 44km El Chocolate stage, the 43km Otates stage and tomorrow's massive 56km Guanajuatito stage.
Temperatures will be up around 30C, putting stress on drivers, co-drivers, mechanics and running gear. There were eight stages yesterday, the same today and three stages tomorrow.
WRC points
After two rounds:
1.
Sebastien Ogier ... 53
2.
Thierry Neuville ... 30
3.
Andreas Mikkelsen ... 30
4.
Jari-Matti Latvala ... 19
5.
Mads Ostberg ... 14
6.
Elfyn Evans ... 14
7.
Ott Tanak ... 12
8.
Hayden Paddon ... 10
