It was all light-hearted. Small talk, even, as he wound himself up for the interview ahead.
But the words that trailed from his lips carried significant weight.
“There’s no story,” he insisted.
“Until Sunday, there is no story.”
History beckons for Thierry Neuville. He needs no reminding of the powerful position he finds himself in at this week’s World Rally Championship finale in Japan. Score just six points and, after over a decade of trying, he will be World Rally champion on Sunday.
But equally, Hyundai still has a manufacturers’ championship to win. And unlike the drivers’ contest that is very much in Neuville’s hands, Toyota can still win that for itself.
How does Neuville go about things this weekend with so much to think about; so much on the line?
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, it’s a bit about balancing our efforts here this weekend,” he told DirtFish.
“Everybody in the team and everybody around is well aligned on our main objective, which is the drivers’ title. Nevertheless, and as we have tried all season long to be as supportive as we can for the manufacturers’ title as well. And it has been a big goal for us throughout the whole season too.
“And therefore, yeah… I think that my team-mates might have a little bit more pressure than me on that side this weekend.”
So that’s one thing clear. As expected, the drivers’ title is the primary aim.
Neuville continued: “Nevertheless, if we can in any way support I would be keen to do that so I think we need to have a good approach, do our race on our own rhythm and if there’s anything that happens, it would make sense for us to go and support, we would do it.”
There’s a clear emphasis on just getting through this one. In another answer about feeling with the i20 N Rally1, Neuville made reference to it being good enough “for the job we have to do”.
Winning the rally doesn’t matter. Winning the championship does.
All professional drivers in Neuville’s position no better than to reveal the weight of pressure, or even anticipation, they are feeling in such moments, but he did let his guard down a little.
“I don’t think it will feel like a normal rally for me,” he revealed.
Neuville confessed this won't be a normal weekend for him
“I hope that we can kick off on a good rhythm and the feeling is there. In that way, we can at least see where we are situated after a few stages and then we can manage also depending on my team-mates always.
“And that’s the only thing we can do this weekend for the team up until, yeah, something drastically changed or whatever where we could maybe do a bit more.
“But in the beginning I think for us the main job is to be more or less where we should be and be able to react in both ways.”
Hyundai wary of Toyota attack
So with Neuville playing reargunner in Japan, Ott Tänak and Andreas Mikkelsen will assume primary responsbility for Hyundai’s manufacturers’ title bid.
Tänak – who can still take the drivers’ title from Neuville albeit under exceptional circumstances – is ready to go on the offensive so that Hyundai can be defensive.
“Clearly it’s so open at the moment and we know how Toyota is going to attack, they’ve attacked every year and they are competitive here,” he told DirtFish.
Hyundai's drivers are aware the Toyota attack will be strong
“So obviously the drivers’ title is safe from Toyota, but the manufacturers’ is really open, so we definitely want to defend this one.”
That means Tänak’s approach in Japan will be a stark contrast to Neuville’s.
“Obviously, the manufacturers, it’s not just about finishing,” he said. “We can finish, but we can still lose it. So it’s not about driving through.
“We need to be competitive with Toyota. We can’t let them take one, two, three. And obviously, it’s not going to work out as well. So we need to be in the mix and to make sure that they don’t outscore us.”
Mikkelsen added: “How to approach it? It’s a bit tricky. You have to see the whole picture. Thierry, he will be very safe, Ott will be flat out, because he has to win to have a chance as well for the drivers’ [title]. We have a manufacturer to play for as well, so I guess I will be somewhere in between the guys.
“When you see the result of this rally last year, I think they [Toyota] were one, two and three. We know they have a strong car on this type of terrain. Let’s see for this year. It’s going to be a tough challenge to take them on home soil, but I think all of us are ready to do it.”
Mood in the Toyota camp is cautiously optimistic.
While it is on the back foot, it can still take the title regardless of what Hyundai does if it takes a clean sweep of the top positions (Saturday classificaton, Super Sunday and powerstage) like it did in Chile.
Sébastien Ogier told DirtFish: “The target is pretty clear and simple, but not so simple to reach. Obviously, we need a close to perfect weekend. We’ve done it last year here, so nothing impossible, but we know we require a strong performance from every team members.
“But I feel it’s nice to come in Japan with still this target alive. Obviously we’ve been fighting the whole year for it, that was always on my side the target of the season and I did everything I could to help to support the team in that way.
“I started in a very strong way; like you know the last few events haven’t been as good as I was hoping for but a lot of positive still with the performance we’ve shown and the speed we’ve shown, so at least being more involved than planned this year and having more seat time gave me the opportunity again to feel even better in the car.
“It’s very paradoxical these three last events because again I felt so good in the car; I was the best performer every time it feels that everything was going the best way, but unfortunately, yeah, the points doesn’t show that way.
“So this time we have to somehow keep the same approach, but hopefully put all of the pieces together this time and bring the perfect result.”
Ogier is focused on delivering the perfect result for his team this weekend
Toyota hasn’t been beaten to any world title since 2020, and has already ceded the manufacturers’ prize to Hyundai. But on home soil, Elfyn Evans said there is “not so much” extra pressure because “at the end of the day, we’re quite a long way behind”.
He reasoned: “It’s been very difficult to make any inroads in terms of the manufacturers’ championship. We’ve seen already many times this year there’s been very little to separate us, so we really need an exceptional weekend to take that title away, so we can only go in and try.
“In a way, I think we all view it like we don’t have so much to lose in the end, so the pressure is not too bad.”
Additional reporting by Colin Clark and David Evans.
