WRC
Neuville “happy” to leave asphalt behind after Japan struggle
Thierry Neuville admitted he was relieved to see the WRC’s asphalt season come to an end after another difficult weekend for Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team at FORUM8 Rally Japan.
The 2024 world champion finished sixth on Toyota’s home event, behind team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, after struggling throughout the weekend to find a workable balance in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
For a driver who has traditionally been one of the championship’s asphalt benchmarks, Neuville’s reaction was telling.
“Happy,” he said when asked how he felt about the season’s final Tarmac round being complete. “I mean, somehow it’s the first time you hear me saying that it’s the last Tarmac round of the season. It never happened before.
“But with the pace we had throughout the weekend, I’m very satisfied with it - throughout the weekend, and throughout last year and this year.”
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Neuville was unable to match the Toyota quartet which filled the top four places in Japan, with Elfyn Evans leading home Sébastien Ogier, Sami Pajari and Takamoto Katsuta. Hyundai’s difficult event was compounded by repeated balance complaints, particularly on the hard compound tyre and in the hot, technical conditions of Saturday and Sunday.
Neuville said the issue was not confined to Japan, pointing instead to a wider pattern on asphalt since the current Rally1 asphalt package changed for 2025.
“We went slower than in the past,” he explained. “Toyota improved on the Power Stage by four to six seconds between the four drivers compared with the first pass.
“I was seven seconds slower than my first pass two years ago. And in the Power Stage now, they were two seconds faster and I was three seconds slower. So the gap is there. It’s crazy.”
Neuville believes the combination of tyre behaviour, the removal of hybrid power and the way that has affected the car’s drivability has left Hyundai exposed in certain conditions.
“For sure, it’s the tyres,” he said. “We lost the hybrid and, since we do not have any hybrid anymore, I think we are a bit down on engine power on corner exit.
“Our diffs do not work the same way anymore because we do not have that torque to make the diff work properly. So it’s all little things which make us go slow.”
Japan also marked the final asphalt outing for the current Rally1 cars before a new generation of WRC machinery is introduced next season.
Neuville, who won the world title with Hyundai last year, said the current car would still be remembered positively despite the frustrations of its final Tarmac chapter.
“At the end of this year, we will have five years of adventure behind us with great memories, for sure,” he said.
“Like always, there have been highs and lows. Generally, we have been competitive for quite a while, but always with ups and downs - never really super consistent throughout the whole year on every surface. That was a bit frustrating.
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“That has always been a bit of a bitter story with Hyundai. It’s something we can’t do much about, and now we focus only on gravel and we will see.”
Asked whether the current Rally1 cars had lived up to the previous-generation World Rally Cars introduced in 2017, Neuville said the outright performance had been comparable, especially during the hybrid era.
“With the hybrid, the cars had loads of power, so that was nice,” he said. “But no paddle shift, no centre diff, different aero, less aero.
“It will be remembered as a great car because, in the end, the times were very similar, especially when we had the hybrid kit. The times were very close and similar to the WRC cars, but the drivability was, for us at least, much better with the previous cars.”
The championship now turns to gravel, beginning with EKO Acropolis Rally Greece later this month, and Neuville expects Hyundai to have a stronger platform once the surface changes.
“For sure, we should have a good start position if the weather is with us that weekend,” he said. “Generally, it is a rally where Hyundai has been successful in the past.
“Gravel rallies with lots of grip are where we are strong, but there are still some unknowns - the new tyres Hankook is going to bring, the drivability of those. There are a couple of question marks.”
