Hyundai has apologised to Thierry Neuville and is planning to change “everything” on his car after a suspected turbo related issue dented his World Rally Championship title hopes in Japan.
Championship leader Neuville can clinch the crown by scoring six points at the season finale, but that prospect has been made much tougher after his i20 N suffered a mysterious loss of power in stage four on Friday.
Faced with only a tyre fitting zone in between the stage loops, Hyundai was unable to fix the problem dropping Neuville from second to 15th, some 7m41.3s adrift of title rival, team-mate and rally leader Ott Tanak.
Hyundai was surprised by the issue given its strong reliability this year with Neuville's only other technical fault coming in Kenya.
The Korean marque's WRC programme manager Christian Loriaux believes the problem is related to the car’s turbo after confirming Neuville lost boost pressure in stage four. He is also confident the engine hasn’t incurred any damage.
“Thierry actually had a brand new turbo for this event and the rest of the things are pretty much proven parts,” Loriaulx told Autosport.
“We know he lost the boost pressure and we know the wastegate regulation is not working. Is it the electric coil or box or the wiring in between? We don’t know. We are going to try and figure that out tonight and change everything to make sure we fix the problem.”
Loraiux was quick to apologise to Neuville before praising how the Belgian handled the problem that arrived at the worst moment in the title fight.
“We are all pushing for everything so sometimes a driver makes a mistake, sometimes the team make mistake but it is very frustrating. We have had good reliability this year," he added.
“This is really a blow and very frustrating as it puts us under pressure and in a difficult situation and for that we want to really apologise to Thierry.
"He was doing an incredible job for the team and we didn’t expect him to be where he was today at the start and we were expecting him to be steady.
"Despite the problem he still reacted in a very professional way and kept his calm and he brought the car back without losing his temper which is admirable.
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“I couldn’t do it I would kick the steering wheel and shout at everyone, but again we apologise. It is not over and we have to stay positive and keep pushing.”
Neuville refused to blame the team for the issue but admitted it was the “worst thing that could have happened” this weekend.
“Of course they [the team] can apologise but it will not change the situation," said Neuville, who is still confident he can recover to the points paying positions on Saturday.
"It will not make me any more happy for sure. Nevertheless we first need to have a look at what the problem is.
“I’m not sure we can say the team is responsible for the issue. We know in motorsport things happen but of course they have to make sure they get the car fixed for tomorrow.
“Obviously it is the worst thing that could happen to us this weekend. I would have preferred to have a puncture than losing seven minutes with a technical issue, but that shows that [points] advantage we built up over the year, those 25 points are really crucial. Hopefully this hard work will pay off and we will be rewarded.”
Tanak not thinking about drivers’ title push
While Neuville’s drama has ignited Tanak’s slim title hopes, the 2019 world champion is not letting himself think about the prospect of securing a second crown.
The Estonian produced a near perfect drive to open up a 20.9s rally lead, but remains focussed on holding off Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Sebastien Ogier to help Hyundai secure a first manufacturers’ title since 2020.
“There is nothing to think about," said Tanak. "I can’t do anything different than what I’m doing.
“It has been very frustrating for the team as first of all this morning started very positive with Toyota having two cars with punctures on the first stage and everything was looking under control and then sometimes you are amazed at how quickly things can change around and you are on the backfoot.
“I had to fight the Toyotas to stay ahead of them to protect the team and let’s see what tomorrow brings. It is still very difficult.”
