He estimates he’d had 11 days off in the seven weeks that have passed since he became World Rally champion.
A fitting coincidence given the number that’s adorned his Hyundai for so long. But not anymore.
2025 is new territory for Thierry Neuville. Number #1 on the door, first off the start ramp outside Casino Square next week, he is no longer the hunter but the hunted.
“It’s going to be a special moment,” Neuville predicted to DirtFish. “It’s going to be nice to see the number one on our car for the whole season as well.
“And it will create memories because there will be a lot of miniatures, there will be a lot of pictures from this year, which I’m definitely going to keep in my archives and later on in my museum as well. So it will be fun.”
Fun is not what gets professional athletes out of bed in the morning though. If Neuville’s in it, he’s in it to win it. But does he want to win it as badly as he did before?
Will we see the same Neuville now that he’s world champion?
Neuville became world champion after 13 seasons of trying in Japan last November
In a top-flight career that’s now 13 seasons old, Neuville’s finally dropped the monkey from his shoulders and fulfilled his ultimate potential by touching gold in 2024.
“It’s nice having that title now and being called a world champion, and joining all the other famous world champions is obviously a pleasure,” he reflected. “It’s something we’ve been working for for a while.”
Throughout that quest, Neuville’s speed has obviously stood out, but all world champions have to be fast. What instead has really stood Neuville out from the crowd is his tenacity.
History is littered with examples of Neuville simply refusing to give up when others may well have done. Remember him and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe pushing the car over 800m into service in Croatia 2022? The ingenuity to fill his engine with Corona when it was needing water in Mexico? Last-gasp victories over the likes of Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans, refusing to settle for second?
Previous campaigns have featured fumbles, but have all been underpinned by a relentless desire to become the world’s best. Now that Neuvile’s finally got there, it would be human for his motivation to have dropped a touch. After all that effort, his ambition has finally been realized.
But the Belgian insists it’s business as usual. Even the pressure being lifted of finally becoming world champion hasn’t altered his psyche. 2024 is the past; there’s now a new season to attack.
“I don’t really feel any difference now [as a world champion],” Neuville said. “I would say that we took off a little weight off our shoulders, yes, because we were still fighting for that title for a long time and we finally got it.
“But the pressure of having to deliver, to perform, trying to be the best and better than the others, will always be there. And that pressure is for me a very important pressure as well because that’s the pressure which… yeah, makes you continuously pushing your boundaries and never giving up.”
There are the crucial worlds: ‘never giving up’. Would it therefore be fair to say Neuville is definitely as hungry for a second title as he was his first?
“Definitely, definitely. And maybe a little bit more because, I mean, like I said, the other pressure’s gone, so I try to enjoy it also a bit more, maybe now.
“And I could, I mean… the hunger is the same, but maybe we could do it with a bit more pleasure.”
The first battle lines will be drawn next week at the Monte Carlo Rally, an event Neuville won for a second time 12 months ago. But this year, the challenge looks to be tougher.
I think we have four to five drivers who can win the championshipThierry Neuville
There are 14 rounds instead of 13, and even more contenders to see off with the full-time return of 2022 and 2023 world champion Kalle Rovanperä. Neuville, however, doesn’t fully subscribe to this theory.
“Tougher, I don’t know,” he offered, “but it will be challenging again, definitely.
“I mean, I think we have four to five drivers who can win the championship. We have one round more, we end up the season on a gravel event [instead of Tarmac] as well, so yeah, slight adjustments to the points system.
“So there are a few new things again, but not to forget as well, the cars have changed slightly, the tire manufacturer has changed, so there are additional challenges which come on top of all the others.”
Neuville didn’t list who he feels those ‘four to five’ title contenders are, but it’s reasonable to assume that group includes himself, Rovanperä, Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans at a minimum; the fifth potentially being new Hyundai team-mate Adrien Fourmaux.
Asked directly whether Fourmaux will be able to fight Hyundai’s two world champions fairly, Neuville replied: “I think we have four to five drivers this year who are going to be regularly on the podium and maybe on the top step as well. So it’s going to be exciting.
“I think that overall we have good tools to have a strong season as a team and each driver independently as well. It’s going to be exciting to see.”
Could all three Hyundais be in the fight for this year's championship?
But who’s the favorite? Is it Neuville, the current world champion? Or Rovanperä, the one who came out on top when all of this year’s protagonists last raced over a full season?
“[I see myself] within the favourites,” Neuville admitted. “Like I mean always, we have always been part of the ones who had the chance to win the championship and the tools.
“But everything needs to come together and obviously last year for us it did. We stayed in the lead of the championship for the whole season. We had different rivals who came close but always, yeah, never caught us. So this year, I think it’s going to be challenging.
“I think it’s going to be tougher to stay in the front of the championship for the whole season because we also see Toyota with five cars and two official teams entering, so they’re going to take a lot of manufacturers’ points with that and it will make it, yeah, different.”
There isn’t, however, any extra motivation to try and prove he can beat Rovanperä over a full season.
“No, not more than before,” Neuville confirmed. “I’ve done many, many championships and they have all been particular and all difficult and all different.
Neuville doesn't feel he needs to prove anything against the returning Rovanperä
“And I mean, there was Loeb to beat, there has been Ogier to beat, there have been in the past Grönholm to beat, there have been many, many drivers and there has been Kalle as well and Kalle will be there now.
“So it’s actually nice to have him back and it’s also nice to have more drivers who want to share the big points.”
Neuville’s thoughts are certainly insightful, and provide clues as to how he’s approaching his very first WRC title defense. But actions speak louder than words. Will he still truly have that same fight within him to pull out all the stops to become world champion? Or conversely, will he drive with a newfound freedom that simply makes him even better than before?
In a season that promises plenty of fascinating narratives, the impact Neuville’s world title will have on his performances is up there with the best of them.
