Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team is not taking their 2025 drubbing at the hands of rivals Toyota Gazoo Racing lying down.
Ott Tanak has a somewhat slender chance of challenging for the Driver’s crown, lying fourth, 43 points behind the log leader Sebastien Ogier, but to aid his chances, the Korean manufacturer has relived him of scoring Manufacturer points.
Under current WRC sporting regulations, nominated drivers must remain within a fixed pool of two homologated engines across the season. By removing Tänak from the manufacturer nomination, Hyundai can bolt a fresh engine into the 2019 world champion’s i20 N for the remaining three rounds.
Hyundai said: “For the final three rounds of the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship season, Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team will only nominate Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux for manufacturers’ points.
“This strategic decision allows Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja to compete without manufacturer nomination and by taking full advantage of the sporting regulations, the team is ensuring Tänak and Järveoja are in the strongest possible position to continue their fight for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles.”
Given Tanak’s as yet unexplained engine failure in Chile, and asked if he was concerned, the Estonian answered “You are asking completely the wrong guy. I don’t know about technical things.”
Thierry Neuville, the defending champion has admitted to being concerned over Hyundai’s lack of pace and feeling, expressing “I felt like I did pretty much everything I could do, honestly.I couldn’t find anything more. I tried several settings. I think I pushed quite well in some places, but obviously the times were not coming. I don’t know what more to say.”
“If we would know [where the difference is], I think we would have done something since a while,” he said. “I don’t know. They are just stronger. It’s definitely worrying. It’s not frustrating anymore – it’s worrying. We need to dig deeper, for sure, but we are trying. We don’t seem to find a way.”
“When we compare to Formula 1, it’s very similar. We have seen a team on a high for years, before another team was able suddenly to find the speed,” he explained. “And on weekends like this, I always think about all those Formula 1 drivers who are in the car, which is five tenths slower per lap. This weekend, for sure, I was part of those who live a lot of frustrating weekends.
Hyundai is stepping up its preparation for the back-to-back tarmac rallies in Central Europe and Japan, entering two National rallies with the aim to unlock performance on the upcoming WRC tarmac rallies.
“Honestly we need to see how we are on Tarmac and if we can find performance and the confidence we need,” said Neuville when asked about the upcoming Central European Rally.
“We have a preparation event in my hometown, St. Vith, actually and I’m going to try and enjoy that one, and work hard with the team to at least find something, and then we will see in [Central Europe]. We can only cross fingers that Hyundai will on the pace for the next event.
“I think we will be more focused on evolutions than on set up so let’s see if we can improve anything on the basics of the car before we start doing the fine tuning. This rally will give us more mileage and feedback about how satisfied we are.”
Next weekend, Adrien Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria will jump behind the wheel at the Croatia Rally, which hosts the final round of the 2025 FIA European Rally Championship.
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