Hyundai Motorsport president and team principal Cyril Abiteboul feels Thierry Neuville’s difficult Monte Carlo will serve as a “wake-up call” for the rest of the season.
World champion Neuville endured a lackluster opening round to his title defense – leading the rally after Thursday evening but plummeting out of contention when he misjudged his braking to a hairpin, went off and damaged his rear-left suspension.
Remarkably, the Belgian then went off on the very same corner on the second pass – albeit struggling with a puncture at the time – and then suffered more dramas on Saturday with a car that he had to stop and reset, and a collision with a rock face.
Then on Sunday Neuville didn’t have the pace to recover his weekend, and thus lies just sixth in the championship – 17 points down on the highest-placed full season driver Elfyn Evans.
Although new signing Adrien Fourmaux picked up a podium, the Monte wasn’t the best start for Hyundai either as Toyota brought home a maximum 60-point haul, leaving Hyundai 24 points behind already.
Neuville's title defense didn't get off to the best of starts
Abiteboul however was keen to focus on the positives, despite recognizing that Neuville will need to up his game from Rally Sweden onwards.
“I see a car that, when the conditions are sort of straightforward, can be still very competitive, and that was a big question mark for the winter, and that’s without all the evolution that will come from Sweden onward, so I see some positive,” Abiteboul summarized.
“And also I see some difference of approach. I see indeed that Thierry will struggle, but I’m very sure that it can serve also a bit as a wake-up call for him for the next rally.”
Asked by DirtFish if he was disappointed by Neuville’s performance, Abiteboul stressed “‘disappointed’ is a bit strong” but highlighted where he feels the world champion’s weaknesses are.
“I think Thierry is someone who is very strong in particular when he knows all the parameters, all the conditions,” Abiteboul explained.
“Monte Carlo, where he was very strong last year, was a totally different profile in terms of rally, except for a couple of stages that were tricky. But this rally this year was all about dealing with the challenge of the unknown. And in that respect, probably he’s not the best.
“But very quickly, we’ll come back to certain rallies where the factors will be much more in our control. The tires also, we’ll increase our understanding of the tires, which is something that is… he’s an intellectual person in relation to his approach of rallying.
“And right now, it’s true that we are not in the capacity to provide to him what he’d like to get, to build his approach of the weekend. But those things will come very quickly, I’m sure, and they have to come very quickly for him, like for us.”
Neuville acknowledged his opening round was “challenging” but is optimistic for next week’s event in Umeå.
“We can be quite optimistic about Sweden, for sure,” Neuville told DirtFish. “The better road position will help us to have a better rally. But still, we need to take the benefit from that, so that will be our target for the upcoming event.
“We are determined to be fighting for a podium finish,” he added. “More important to us than winning is a clean points haul for the championship, and we want to maximize this on Sunday.”
