Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala has done his best to hype Hyundai up. Now Hyundai has done its best to hype itself down.
The i20 squad lands in Croatia this week in need of a strong result to prevent Toyota from running away with this year’s World Rally Championship.
Latvala, Toyota’s team principal, has made no secret of the fact he had expected stronger opposition so far in 2026, especially in Sweden.
“They’ve been a bit behind,” he told DirtFish. “I must say they haven’t been on the level I expected them to be. But now in Croatia I think there is a chance that they will be challenging us a lot more.”
But despite the obvious desire to end Toyota’s dominance, Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley has warned against expecting a resurgence.
“Croatia Rally is potentially the first event of the season where pure performance will be a key factor,” he began. “The team has been working hard on the setup of the car to improve the drivability when the surface grip changes.”
And then the key bit: “While we have made positive steps, we won’t have all of the revisions in place to demonstrate our full potential – it will be a step-by-step process over the coming events.”
To borrow Adrien Fourmaux’s phrasing, Tarmac has been the “black beast” of Hyundai’s ‘evo’ i20 N Rally1, but on all surfaces drivers have struggled with a car beset by a narrow operating window.
Thierry Neuville is therefore singing from the same hymn sheet as Wheatley.
“We’ve struggled a bit on Tarmac recently, so Croatia Rally will be a challenging round for us,” he said. “It’s one of the toughest Tarmac events in the world, but I’m really looking forward to the new stages; the location has changed this year, and it seems like the roads are quite different from what we’ve faced before.
“New Tarmac roads are always an extra element for us to learn, especially with changing weather conditions, but generally I enjoy new stages and the challenges they bring. Generally, the grip is low and there’s a lot of cutting, so you always need to manage your speed to ensure you make your corner if the conditions are worse than expected.”
Hyundai has never won in Croatia before, and hasn't won on Tarmac since 2024
History is against Hyundai in Croatia, too. It hasn’t won an asphalt round of the WRC since late 2024, and has never topped the podium in Croatia.
It did, however, outscore Toyota for the first time in 2026 at the recent Safari Rally Kenya.
“So far this year, the WRC has given the drivers some incredible conditions,” Wheatley added. “Monte-Carlo was exceptional for the amount of snow and slush, Sweden was colder than usual – but with smaller snowbanks than normal to catch the drivers if they stray off line – and Safari was the full Kenyan experience.
“We have seen plenty of extremes, so we hope to get back to a ‘normal’ event in Croatia, but we have the challenge of a new location in and around Rijeka. The new stages will level the playing field slightly.
“The stages are challenging but they reward commitment, so we will need to be at 100% from the very first corner to fight for a podium here. If the weather is dry commitment will be high, however if the rain does come, it can change the trajectory of the event entirely and attrition will become a major factor. We know that our preference is consistent conditions, so if it is going to rain, we need it to rain all week.
“The reliability of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car has been a key factor for us so far this season, and as a team we will be taking every opportunity possible to ensure that our crews have the best chance to be in the fight on Sunday afternoon.”
Both teams are playing a strong media game: Toyota painting Hyundai out to be a threat so as to keep its team sharp; Hyundai lowballing itself so that a potential victory seems like an overachievement.
Twenty special stages will reveal whose pre-match prediction proved prophetic.
