Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul feels Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally1 is still a faster car than Hyundai’s i20 N Rally1 after last week’s Rally Finland.
Toyota has won seven of the nine World Rally Championship events this season, and leads Hyundai by 67 points in the manufacturers’ standings.
Hyundai meanwhile has just won one event, Sardinia, courtesy of Thierry Neuville.
But the team has performed far better than expected on the recent two fast gravel events, Estonia and Finland, which have traditionally been Toyota territory, with two second places for Neuville – including his first Finland podium for Hyundai in nine attempts – and a third for Esapekka Lappi in Estonia.
Hyundai nearly scored its second double podium in a row too, as Rally1 graduate Teemu Suninen finished just 4.3 seconds shy of Takamoto Katsuta’s third-placed Toyota.
But Toyota, and more specifically Elfyn Evans, ultimately proved too fast for Neuville and Hyundai to match once championship leader Kalle Rovanperä crashed out.
Abiteboul therefore knows there is room for improvement.
“While this result is a strong one and positive for the championship, we can see we are still missing out and we need to make more steps like we have done recently if we want to become a constant contender against Toyota,” he said.
“Teemu had a number of very strong moments over the weekend. There is a bit of frustration that he is not on the podium, but having that in only your second rally is a sign of our shared ambition.
“We know these fast rallies don’t necessarily show our car at its best, but it is the work going on behind the scenes in the factory that has helped us to improve the car, show consistency and reliability, so I’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone.”
Neuville told DirtFish that “the Toyotas are still very strong and it’s very tough to beat them, to be honest” but added that the recent upturn in performance, and structural changes within the team including the hiring of François-Xavier Demaison as technical director in June, have been sources of great motivation.
“I mean the team is motivated enough, definitely,” he said.
“We have a few new key persons in key positions as well. The restructuring is ongoing and we can see clearly the trend is positive, so that gives us definitely a lot of motivation but it gives a lot of motivation to every team member to see that we are improving, especially on rallies like here where it has been difficult.
“It’s good to see.”
Where Suninen feels he lost a podium
Abiteboul said there was “a bit of frustration” that Suninen didn’t manage to climb onto the podium in Finland – an emotion shared by the driver himself.
The Finn scored a solid fifth in Estonia but wanted to step up on his home event, targeting a maiden podium for Hyundai and first since 2020.
Ending the first full day fourth, Suninen suddenly rose to third on Saturday morning when rival Takamoto Katsuta spun his Toyota and gave up close to 15 seconds.
And so began an epic tussle between the pair who swapped positions a further three times throughout the leg.
However, Katsuta ultimately proved to have enough to shade Suninen, and the Finn reckons he knows why.
“I think everyone’s expectations were getting higher and higher how fast I was able to drive,” Suninen told DirtFish.
“I felt that the podium could have been in our hands, but we threw away some seconds because on slippy conditions I was a bit careful in some places, I didn’t get maybe everything I wished from the car side, and I didn’t know how to adapt driving or the car to those conditions.
“Then we lost too much time, and it was difficult to take it back.”
Suninen’s cause wasn’t helped by running incredibly wide towards the end of the Himos – Jämsä stage the first time through, where all four wheels of his Hyundai were almost off the road on the exit of a downhill left-hander.
It looked dramatic, but Suninen said he would do the same again.
“On this downhill, it’s not likely a corner so we can be cutting quite a lot, we can go a bit wide, there is no ditch. So I was pushing and I was fastest on that sector, so if I could repeat I could still do the same!
“I’m pretty happy that I got the chance [in the Rally1 car], and team was trusting me and giving the opportunity,” he added.
“The only thing what I would have hoped is to have slightly bigger gap between Estonia and Finland that I could have worked more with myself and analyzed more the driving.
“But that’s the calendar and now we have a bit more time.”
Suninen’s program for the rest of the year is unclear, but he won’t drive the Rally1 car on Acropolis Rally Greece.
He did however do some roll-out and shakedown runs for Hyundai on Tuesday.
“I don’t know about competitions,” Suninen said. “But we will see.”
