He and co-driver John Kennard will encounter the challenging temperatures, altitude and long stages of their second WRC event of the year, and first gravel event for the season, from Friday to Sunday.
Rally Mexico is compact, with 21 stages, but it makes tough demands on drivers, by featuring two 40km-plus tests and one 56km monster.
Temperatures will be nearing 30degC, putting stress on engines and transmissions, as will the altitude - some stages reach as high as 2700m.
''This will sap a whopping 50-60bhp from the car which will mean we will have to adapt our driving style to be smoother. But this is all part of our learning curve this weekend,'' Paddon said.
He added that while the stages themselves were fast, technical and generally pretty smooth, alongside the road there were a lot of hidden dangers and rocks.
''Studying previous year's editions of the event, the attrition rate here is often high, stressing the importance of trying to have a clean event,'' Paddon said.
To his advantage, he is coming off a career-best result - fifth overall in Sweden - and returns to his own #20 i20 WRC after driving Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo's car in Sweden when the Spanish driver was out with an injury.
''After a good result in Sweden and a really really good test last week in Spain, we are still keeping our expectations in check. This is our first time competing here and that alone is a bit of a disadvantage.
"However, in our favour this weekend is our road position (eighth because this is our position in the championship) and the new settings we have on the car from our test which makes the car much easier for me to drive,'' Paddon said.
Even though he and Kennard did a recce in Mexico last year, the familiarity that the other competitors have with this route will be a hard gap to bridge, as they were not able to drive the notes at speed.
''So there is more work to do during recce ... to visualise speeds and lines and translate that into our pace notes,'' Paddon said.
Between Sweden and Mexico, he spent a few days at Formula Medicine in Italy, working further on both physical and psychological aspects.
''Particularly on the mental side, I have been developing some new techniques with the trainers to help me hit that sweet spot,'' he said.
With a new engine upgrade on all three cars, Hyundai Motorsport heads to Rally Mexico in second place in the WRC manufacturers' standings.
