Two rounds still remain of the 2025 World Rally Championship, but Hyundai drivers Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville both have their focus on 2026 instead.
While Neuville claimed the drivers’ title for Hyundai, and the marque only lost the manufacturers’ title to Toyota on the very last stage of the season in 2024, Toyota has totally dominated this year with 11 wins from 12 events so far.
Ahead of this weekend’s Rally Japan, it has already secured the manufacturers’ title and three of its drivers are fighting for the drivers’ prize as well. Hyundai’s Tänak is still in mathematical contention, but 50 points back with a maximum of 70 left and effectively ruling himself out of the running.
Instead, the Estonian’s mind – along with team-mate Neuville’s – is on what improvements can be made to the i20 N Rally1 to ensure Toyota doesn’t repeat its domination in 2026.
Tänak told DirtFish: “Obviously I don’t know if [it was] the hybrid change or whatever has changed, but we’ve been not able to adapt as well to these changes anyhow and therefore we seem to be a bit behind and just need to find a way I guess.
“It’s the way it is at the moment and between Central Europe and this one it’s been difficult to do much difference as we have no testing and difficult to prepare only with the shakedown. But it’s more about next year, to be ready for next year.”
Tänak managed to go second fastest on the opening 1.7-mile stage on Thursday, but Toyota’s pace on shakedown was again ominous.
“I guess, yeah, it definitely shows that they have the speed,” Tänak added. “I think there is no doubt how we can match that. We will see.
“For sure, tomorrow the conditions will be very different, probably much drier and higher grip as well and different stages. So yeah it’s not representative, I guess, for the general stages, but still, for sure, it shows the speed [Toyota has].”
Neuville was even quoted in Hyundai’s pre-event press release admitting this weekend would be about learning and improving the car rather than chasing a top result.
“What we can do?” he told DirtFish. “I think we try to test things we haven’t tested yet and overall I mean the target for this weekend is to drive on our speed we feel comfortable with, not overdriving and just get through the weekend.
Neuville just wants to try and enjoy the weekend without any expectation
“I want to enjoy the stages and enjoy the atmosphere and give any valuable feedback to the team I can give from here this weekend.
“We have tested already a lot,” he added, “so we are looking at what we can test in addition to what has already been done over the past tests and rallies. Yeah, I mean, we are in a tricky situation now, that’s for sure.
“It’s not looking great in terms of performances throughout the whole season. I mean, the numbers say it all. But yeah, we have the will to come back at some point. We don’t know yet when, but we will keep fighting until it works.
“Realistically, I have no expectations from the weekend. I just want to do a trouble-free rally and a good rally and speed will be what it will be.”
Adrien Fourmaux is the most upbeat of the Hyundai trio, at least setting himself a target for Rally Japan: to repeat his podium from 12 months ago when he was an M-Sport driver.
“Last year I was struggling a little bit with the car also and myself and I did finish on the podium,” Fourmaux told DirtFish.
Fourmaux is targeting a podium in Japan
“I think here it’s quite possible to play [for] everything because there are thousands and thousands of corners so it’s thousands and thousands of opportunities to get a mistake or a puncture or whatever and so then things will happen for sure like every year in Japan.
“It’s really demanding for the brakes, for the car, for the drivers. The stages are quite long in terms of time. Not especially for kilometers, but at least we spent quite a lot of time on the stage. So I would like to fight for the podium.”
The Frenchman had a positive spin on Hyundai’s current performance plight, too.
“At least we are trying to sort some things on the car and we found that in Croatia, but it will take a little bit more time unfortunately,” he said. “So actually it’s positive, at least more mileage we do and we have a better understanding of the car and what setup we need in some conditions.
“But actually it seems hat’s maybe also our issue. We are a little bit too much dependent on the setup we need for the type of conditions. So then it can be really good on one stage and a little bit less on the other. So then we need a little bit more compromise for this kind of operation.
“To be fair, there is also a new factor this year: it’s the tires. And the tires have also a different window to work on than the old manufacturer. So I think there is two things we need to understand on the car, but also the tires and it needs to work together.
That's what the announcement is for, so yeah, we need to wait for thatOtt Tänak
“That’s why also sometimes it’s nice to have also Ott with the Monte car, so at least we can compare where we are a bit better and where the other car is better. So at least we can analyze a little bit more.”
Neuville has a deal to continue with Hyundai next year, with Fourmaux expected to remain with the team as well. Tänak’s future has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks, and while his mentioning of 2026 can be taken as a positive for Hyundai he wasn’t giving much away when discussing the matter directly with DirtFish.
“Obviously there is always work going on in the background and I hope as soon as the team is ready, the announcement will be there,” he said.
Asked if we can be confident that he’ll stay at Hyundai, Tänak added: “That’s what the announcement is for, so yeah, we need to wait for that.”
