Thierry Neuville has stated that “no one knows” how Hyundai can resolve its performance issues after another complicated race in the World Rally Championship (WRC) recently held in the Canary Islands. With this latest event, the Korean manufacturer still has not achieved its first victory of the season.
The rally reflected the significant gap between Hyundai and Toyota, which dominated with a 1-2-3-4 in the standings. Hyundai’s best opportunity this year was in Croatia, where Neuville led on Saturday, but a mistake in the final stage cost him the victory to Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta.
In the Canaries, Hyundai prepared for the tough conditions of the asphalt roads, which are one of the main weaknesses of the i20 N. Adrien Fourmaux was the team’s highest finisher, coming in fifth, but more than three minutes behind winner Sébastien Ogier. Despite the improvements made to the vehicle, the performance gap with Toyota has increased compared to last year.
Neuville has acknowledged with frustration his struggle to find the car’s balance, commenting that he has not achieved a sense of confidence during the competition. He added that both he and his teammates, as well as the engineers, do not know how to solve the current situation.
Andrew Wheatley, Hyundai’s sporting director, also admitted that the results in the Canaries were predictable, given the difficulty of extracting consistent performance from the i20 N. Nevertheless, he emphasized that the team has experienced improvements in reliability and is working to minimize time lost outside of pure performance.
As they head into the first gravel rally of the season in Portugal, Hyundai hopes the conditions will provide an opportunity to turn their season around. Neuville has shared cautious optimism after some promising tests, underscoring that competing against the five Toyota vehicles is not an easy task, but the team is ready to face the challenge.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI