Why Neuville struggled in “most difficult” Rally Monte Carlo

Thierry Neuville has previously conquered Rally Monte Carlo twice, but a fundamental lack of confidence to push his Hyundai to the limit left the 2024 world champion on the back foot.

Neuville had flagged even before last weekend’s season opener that he would be “lying a bit” if he said he felt confident behind the wheel of his updated Hyundai, admitting he was “missing the feeling he used to have to attack”.

The Hyundai driver’s performance last weekend offered little to change that viewpoint. Neuville, victorious in Monte Carlo in 2020 and 2024, ended the weekend finishing fifth – 10m29.8s behind eventual winner Toyota’s Oliver Solberg.

Neuville had run as high as fourth before sliding off the road and into a ditch in stage nine, which cost three minutes. More time was lost to a spin in the horrendous snow and icy condition in stage 12, while another two-and-a-half minutes were dropped to a puncture in stage 15. This came after suffering a driveshaft and suspension failure in shakedown.

The running theme through the event was that Neuville simply couldn’t find the feeling with the car and the Hankook tyres to push in the worst conditions the event had witnessed in more than a decade.

“I said before the event that I don’t feel very confident in the car yet, and there is still work to do and that is my biggest concern at the moment, greater than car performance,” said Neuville. “I know that when we can push we will be closer, but it is just not possible to push especially in these tricky conditions.

“Personally it was the most difficult [Monte Carlo I have done] and in terms of conditions, we have seen a bit of everything. Honestly, not having the feeling made it much more difficult than what it could have been. I had got no control and I lost control many times. The only target at the moment was to not lose any wheel on the car and sometimes it was close. It was not very enjoyable.

“We have seen the trend from the whole of last season, so I don’t think it is only Monaco-related but for sure it is related to when the conditions are more challenging.”

Hyundai’s weakness from last season was its performance on asphalt and most notably in changeable grip conditions. It has led the team to make improvements to the front end of its car in bid to widen the i20 N’s operating window and make it more predictable for its driver.

Neuville believes improvements were made with the car during the event, but there is more work to do. The Belgian is, however, feeling much more confident behind the wheel when the championship returns to pure snow in Sweden and gravel events.

“We have made some improvements. If the feeling is there and I get it working better with these tyres, and when we are able to push then we will be much closer than what we are at the moment,” he added.

“We know that on gravel we are generally feeling much more comfortable in the car. The Toyotas will be strong, there is no doubt, they are always strong. They have shown last year how they stepped up and let’s see what we can do. Generally, in Sweden and Finland last year we had some pace and hopefully we can do some work in the Sweden test to be faster than what we were last year.”

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley admitted Neuville’s issues in Monte Carlo are a concern to the team, but feels they are rally-specific.

“For us, it was a challenge and it was difficult. We knew Monte would be difficult, but this was not the Monte we were expecting,” he said. “We did a lot of testing for the rally, and I have to say we didn’t test in quite as extreme conditions as we were expecting here.

“I think it [Neuville’s lack of feeling] is a concern, but it is fundamentally this rally. When you look at the splits and you start drilling into the splits, the small bits on consistent conditions we are much closer to where we need to be.

“We made a reasonable choice with [team-mate] Adrien [Fourmaux] on the tyres to make sure we could maximise the performance on Sunday and, to be fair, he had a decent run and the Power Stage [and] is probably where we are, third, fifth is about where our performance is. We are not so far away.”

Fourmaux fared slightly better than Neuville in Monte Carlo, claiming two stage wins on his way to fourth overall, as the Frenchman pinpointed where Hyundai struggled compared with Toyota.

“When we had something to fight for and we go for it, we can be competitive. But it is true when there were no cuts, no mud and just snow, flat road and tarmac on Sunday, the car is performing,” said Fourmaux.

“It was working in Japan and working in Central Europe last year when it is flat and clean and as soon as it becomes bumpy or different grip levels then we are a lot more in trouble. I have seen when the Toyota takes a cut the car stays really stable in one line, whereas for us the car really makes some snap oversteer and is quite unstable, so we need to work on that.”

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– The Autosport.com Team