Today is a day that Thierry Neuville will remember for the rest of his life.
In truth, it’s a day any World Rally Championship fan will remember too, given the intensity of Neuville’s earlier than expected coronation, and then the breathless powerstage conclusion to the manufacturers’ championship that ultimately went Toyota’s way.
But for Neuville, Rally Japan 2024 was the culmination of a lifelong dream and a lifetime of work.
David Evans spoke with the new world champion just after realizing his ultimate ambition – and this is that interview in full.
This is what it means to Thierry Neuville to call himself World Rally champion.
Thierry Neuville, World Rally Champion how does it feel?
I still feel good, that’s definitely the case. It’s a big reward for all that hard work we’ve put into the fight this year, but even more for all the other years, especially the few last [years] with Martijn where we have been really on it all the time and working hard to achieve our dream, which finally came true.
The intensity of this day, I mean, how bonkers was it?
It was tough. I mean, not only this day, the whole season has been tough. I mean, for several reasons, and we know the reasons. But I have to say that, yeah, coming here, we had a quite nice advantage, the plan was clear but the plan got completely messed up after three stages when the turbo failed and basically, yeah, emotions went in all the directions but again we kept calm, we stayed positive and we fight back once again. We stand up, we fight back.
We came into the points on Saturday which was not really expected, at least not for P7, and this morning, 8.15am or something, we got world champion, which was even less expected, at least not that fast. So yeah, lots of emotions. It has been in all directions this weekend, because obviously we didn’t achieve the manufacturers at the end of the day. But yeah, so we have been living all kinds of emotions this weekend.
Talk us through that moment when you actually found out. How did you find out and what was it like?
I was changing a tire and I got a call from my assistant Florian who never calls me, never. And I didn’t think a second that he called me to tell me that we were world champion, but when I took off the phone I heard the ambience behind and obviously he just threw the message in ‘you are world champion’ and I say ‘OK, OK’ and now and I say ‘but you are sure? ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah Ott went off.’ I said ‘OK that’s not good, obviously because for the manufacturer it was a disaster’. And then I say ‘OK let’s stay focused’, and I say ‘Martijn we are world champion’ and then we obviously gave a hug and then we say ‘what we do now? We stay focused. Now we go all in for the team. They deserve it. So we’re going to try as hard as we can’.
But how do you do that? I mean, how do you put the fact that you’ve just achieved your lifetime dream to the back of your mind and get on with driving a Rally1 car flat out?
I don’t know, but it was important for us to take both titles. I mean, our chairman was here. There are several reasons why we want to fight for that. We definitely gave it all, I mean mainly for the team. It was an important title for them. We didn’t achieve it but I think that we still finished the season in style with 11 out of 12 points today and a great speed, and I had a lot of fun today.
You mentioned there this season, it’s been an unbelievable season. Were there any points that you thought, this is just getting away from us?
No, because we have always kept in the lead. I mean, we only once went under the 10 points difference, I think. But other than that, yeah, we managed quite well. It’s been a three-phase season where obviously the first part of the season we pushed very hard and we always tried to get a good road position for Sunday. We took lots of powerstage points and Sunday points actually as well. We had those three rallies, gravel rallies in a row, where I was suffering a lot mentally but also, yeah, to keep myself motivated all the time was tough. And then obviously there was Finland, Greece, the turning point, and then we just managed our advantage in general.
You look at places like Safari, Sardinia. Mentally, it must have taken so much out of you.
Yeah, I mean Sardinia was tough but we still took 12 points from the weekend, so it wasn’t our worst. Latvia was actually the worst event in terms of points for the season. But yeah, at the end we made it work.
I believe that there is a pressure which is gone, and I will probably enjoy a bit more next year than we did this yearThierry Neuville
Sundays were the key though, weren’t they?
I don’t know. For me, every day was the key because the first day I had to stay on the road while being slow but pushing like hell. Saturday, the only target was to end up on a good road position for Sunday. It was everything we were targeting every Saturday. And Sunday, we just went flat out on the first half of the season, just to try and get the maximum of points from the weekend. And that was the only way for us to stay in the lead.
What is the message now for the team? You did all that you could.
Yeah, I think so. Obviously, I think there were a lot of positive things this year. Our car, in terms of performance, was quite stable this year. Reliability until Friday morning was strong, was a strong point as well. The statistics have changed a bit after Friday but overall, it was still a strong year and as we said before, new team structure, technical director, Christian Loriaux, Cyril [Abiteboul] and all the people united for one, two goals, but mainly one.
You’re now a world champion, how will that change your life from tomorrow morning?
I don’t know, I don’t know. I believe that there is a pressure which is gone, and I will probably enjoy a bit more next year than we did this year, clearly. And I also want to enjoy a bit more, but always with the same goal in mind, to be the best.
It brings so much stress, doesn’t it, when you’re still trying to get that championship, and now the monkey’s gone off your back.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, obviously we are there for a long time. I always said I have the feeling we had a great career so far, plenty of victories, many, many podiums. So I didn’t regret anything and I know that I always fought as hard as I could. But yeah, it’s a great achievement.
