“It will all depend on the feeling,” he predicted. “If the feeling is good, I’m sure we’re going to enjoy it.
“And if you have that feeling, we will be there. If you don’t have it, we need to be clever.”
He wasn’t wrong. Thierry Neuville won’t take solace in how accurate his words proved to be two weeks before the event, but that’s exactly how the 2024 world champion’s Monte Carlo Rally played out.
He had no feeling so he didn’t enjoy it, and didn’t trouble the top of the timesheets.
The tempting conclusion to reach is Hyundai’s performance is still not up to scratch, especially on Tarmac. Team-mate Adrien Fourmaux won two stages, but Toyota won 13.
Hyundai was squarely beaten by Toyota in Monte Carlo
There’s no denying it was indeed a factor in Neuville finishing round one over 10 minutes off the winner.
“Car performance obviously wasn’t the best, that’s for sure and that’s confirmed,” said the Belgian.
But there was a bigger problem troubling him.
“My biggest concern this weekend was not to get any good feeling to be able to drive fast and attack,” he told DirtFish. “We held back and tried just not to make any mistakes, and still we were able to do mistakes. So that’s much more worrying than the car performance at the moment.”
These are worrying words to hear from Neuville, who didn’t exactly have a brilliant season in 2025. Some of that was down to factors outside of his control, but his own errors contributed too. There were times during Rally Japan, even, where he seemed reluctant to push at all given his discomfort behind the wheel.
Neuville admitted the 2026 Monte was the “most difficult I have faced” in terms of conditions, which were certainly extreme – even catching out the runaway leader Oliver Solberg. But at various points in the weekend, Neuville said he felt like more of a passenger in the car than a driver.
The good news, however, is this is surface specific. Neuville won on the WRC’s most recent loose surface event (Saudi Arabia), so is confident of challenging again at next week’s Rally Sweden.
“Sweden is different,” Neuville assured. “Last year we had good speed in Sweden. I’m not concerned about this. It’s the Tarmac events. I just don’t get any good feeling. I try to adapt my driving style. It doesn’t really work.”
The next Tarmac event on the calendar will be Croatia (April 9-12), two weeks before Rally Islas Canarias (April 23-26).
“Clearly, I think we will be more confident heading into Sweden than what I have been here this weekend,” Neuville concluded.
