Thierry Neuville’s frustrated comments regarding road order in the World Rally Championship have been met with resistance by Toyota drivers Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans.
As the leader of the world championship, Neuville has been hamstrung with cleaning the road like always on Rally Latvia – but it proved a particular challenge on Friday with just two stages run in first-pass conditions.
Coupled with a lack of retirements in the Rally1 field, Neuville finds himself ninth overall at the end of the first full day – ahead only of Hyundai team-mate Esapekka Lappi who was asked to slow on the last stage so that he would run ahead of Neuville on the road on Saturday.
At the end of Friday’s stage, SS8 Talsi, a visibly agitated Neuville said: “Obviously the strategy to win a championship is not the same now, rallying has changed a lot.
“Obviously now things like doing part seasons is much more fun and a bigger benefit for everything. Something to think about.”
The entire overnight top-three is populated by drivers not contesting a full season – Rovanperä, Mārtiņš Sesks and Sébastien Ogier. And of the seven completed events so far this season, five of them have been won by part-time drivers.
The Belgian has also led the championship all season, so has been the only one sweeping the roads on gravel on the first day this season.
Neuville was inevitably probed on his stage-end comments at the end of day media zone, and he was still obviously frustrated.
“Like I said, everything has been said in the past many times and repeated many times as well. So what should we add?” Neuville told DirtFish.
“It’s seven, eight rallies in a row on gravel. There’s nothing you can do, [just] try to give your best. That’s what we are doing at the moment and yeah we’re going to see at the end of the weekend.
“So far, the positive from the day is that Elfyn is only seventh and Ott sixth, so that’s what we have to focus on.
“But definitely having the championship contenders being the last cars in the classification, I don’t know it’s really what we want to see.”
Asked to clarify his comment about part-time drivers and the suggestion they’re not good for the championship, and whether he could see the positive in a new driver like Mārtiņš Sesks joining and performing as well as he has, Neuville added: “I don’t know, but it’s hard to see it from my perspective.
“I mean when I came into the championship, I was opening the road most of the time and I still got through and still got to the top level. So why make it easy for the others?
“But it’s not about that. I mean, it’s super good to see young drivers coming and doing well. It’s not a problem. But if I would be a manufacturer spending close to 100 million per year and seeing my cars last on the classification because they’ve done well the whole first part of this championship, I would be really upset.”
How Neuville’s comments were received
Rovanperä is a part-time driver this season, but has won each of the past two world championships meaning he has spent his fair share of time opening the road.
Asked what advice he had for Neuville, Rovanperä offered: “If you don’t want to clean, don’t be first in the championship.”
Quizzed if he saw the road order rules as a problem, he added: “Yeah it’s an issue, but everybody who’s been leading the championship has the same issue. So I don’t see it as a bigger issue now than it has been before.
“Everybody has done it, so I don’t know what the big issue there is. If you just do it, you do it.”
Neuville’s title rival Evans was similarly forthright.
When Neuville’s comments about part-time drivers coming in and making life difficult for the championship contenders were put to him, Evans said: “Well Hyundai have put part-time drivers in for the last six years purely to help his championship campaign, so I think that’s a bit rich.”
And asked for his advice for Neuville, Evans offered: “Get on with it.”
Ogier took a more sympathetic tone though, having spent years fighting the rulemakers on this very topic.
Prompted to offer his advice to Neuville, the eight-time world champion chuckled: “Bite hard and… it’s difficult, it’s not fun for sure.
“I’ve been suffering that many years and I understand this frustration more than anybody here, and today it’s been a day where the road position had a massive effect and even for us, I mean we had an OK start position but not ideal either and there was also no chance for us to fight for the win so far, so I think we could talk [about] that for hours.
I lost this fight already years ago, and now I'm not in a position or not having the energy to continue that oneSébastien Ogier
“Like you say, I’ve been fighting against that many times. I would just conclude that it’s a shame for our sport because, too often, we are missing opportunities to have great fights between the best. Because the best are too often handicapped. That’s not how it’s supposed to be in a world championship, in my point of view.
“But again, I lost this fight already years ago, and now I’m not in a position or not having the energy to continue that one. And yeah, that’s the way it is, but it’s nothing new in our sport.”
But Ogier did appear less impressed with Neuville’s comments about part-time drivers.
“There’s always been part-time drivers as well. It’s nothing new again,” he said.
“And I think about Mārtiņš, I will start with him. It’s great that now you have some local heroes coming and giving them a chance to offer new faces in our sport. So far, it looks like it was a good bet as well. He has done great in Poland. So far, a beautiful day here at home. So that’s great to have this kind of opportunity.
“And about Kalle and me, yeah, I mean, his team has been playing these things for years. And earlier than we did, they started this more than anybody. So there’s no way nobody can say anything about it.”
Hyundai technical director François-Xavier Demaison said he could “understand” Neuville’s frustration, but feels he just has to “accept” the situation.
“We understand his frustration,” Demaison said. “Everybody who had to open the road was always complaining. He’d been opening the road from the beginning of the season, from Sweden on.
“For sure, the frustration you can have, and at some point comes with demotivation. And it ends up with what we see with Ogier, who doesn’t want to do the full championship, because he says, ‘do I need to do this? I prefer to just do a few rallies and come with a good road position. I win them and take…’ So it’s… I understand Thierry’s frustration.
“But we try to remind him that it’s a fight for him for the championship. It’s a long game and he has to fight with Ott and Elfyn.
“Yeah, for sure, I mean, you know, the driver, they want to win rallies because it’s part of their life, but, you know, he has to accept it. He absolutely does.”
