WRC | Neuville: “Hyundai in crisis. We need people to manage”

Hyundai Motorsport is in a moment of profound sporting crisis, at least in the WRC, and this is a fact. After the two major Constructors’ titles won in 2019 and 2020, first a difficult 2021, then a start to 2022, to say the least below the last few seasons, has allowed Toyota and Kalle Rovanpera to take off, even winning 3 of the 4 races disputed until now.

As has often happened from 2014 to today, Thierry Neuville is the driver who continues to support the Alzenau-based team with results. Two podiums in the first 4 races and a fifth place taken yesterday at the Rally of Portugal which says little about the race completed by the Belgian.

Until the i20 N Rally1 supported him in terms of reliability, the 34-year-old from Sankt Vith was in full battle for the top position and for the podium. Then, yet another breakdown on his car, he definitively removed him from dreams of glory and from the podium.

Now Neuville is 46 points behind the World Championship leader, Kalle Rovanpera, yet he continues to be second in the standings with 60 points. In short, as they say in these cases, his is doing it. But in Hyundai things are certainly not going well and the sporting results seem to reflect questionable choices made directly by South Korea.

“I have no choice. Often we are in trouble and the only thing I can do is do my job perfectly and try to be the best driver possible,” said Thierry Neuville at the end of the Rally of Portugal. “It’s clear that things have to change, we can’t go on like this. I mean, being in trouble every time is costing us a lot of points, it’s costing us the titles. We have had 14 technical failures from Monte-Carlo 2021 to date. I believe there are so many, and in this way we will never win any titles “.

“For us it was another dark weekend, even though we were once again able to take the car home. It is not the position we were hoping for, but we did our best. As a crew we were impeccable. We felt comfortable. in the car, this is the positive point. It wasn’t that bad in terms of performance, but reliability was affected. The season has just begun, but in the championship it already looks complicated. “

Neuville went into more detail. In his opinion, what Hyundai Motorsport lacks is not the material or even the skills, but the figures who lead the team, who take responsibility and make decisions. A flaw that, it must be said, has opened up and has become a chasm after the farewell of the now former team director Andrea Adamo at the end of last year.

“History repeats itself: we have seen it in other years, we have several problems. If we add them together, we are behind, we are missing points. It is a shame because we have all the tools to do well. We need people who make decisions, who lead the team, who have the strength and the charisma to run a company like Hyundai Motorsport. Today we lack them. The team is in a bit of a crisis. “

“We are trying to change things, but everything is moving slowly. In motorsports, reactions must be quick and action must follow immediately. We must not forget that the car has less development time than the others. We knew this beforehand. , so it can’t be an excuse. We had to be competitive and consistent right from the start. “

“We have to congratulate Toyota on its performance this weekend. Their reliability is impressive. We have to hope things go better for us in Sardinia. Within the team I am doing my best, that’s all I can say. . I hope it pays off soon. Am I resigned? We have lost a lot of points this weekend. You give it your all, but in the end you never get anything. Even if we got on the podium twice, we could have achieved much better results. We would have I was able to get one win, maybe two. It’s frustrating, “concluded the Belgian.