Thierry Neuville wants change on the Hyundai

Thierry Neuville wants to modify the behavior of his Rally1 hybrid, particularly on dirt and in rainy conditions.

Published on 11/10/2022 à 18:02

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Thierry Neuville wants change on the Hyundai

The behavior of the Hyundai i20 on land does not suit the Belgian. © DPPI

The end of the 2022 World Rally Championship season (WRC) ne comporte plus qu’un intérêt relatif à deux manches du terme. Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) s’est assuré du titre Pilotes alors que Toyota Gazoo Racing caracole en tête du classement Constructeurs. De son côté, Thierry Neuville va tenter à Hyundai de rattraper la marque japonaise au Rally of Catalonia (October 20-23), the two marks being separated by 79 points.

#WRC 🇳🇿 A solid performance for @thierryneuville and @MWydaeghe showing good pace throughout the weekend and finishing in 4th place 🙌🏼#HMSGOfficial #WRC #RallyNewZealand #RallyNZ pic.twitter.com/MS1tTDd5Rh

— Hyundai Motorsport (@HMSGOfficial) October 2, 2022

The Belgian driver, fourth in New Zealand, hardly appreciated the behavior of his car. “We need to find more precision from Hyundai. Sometimes she is too slow to respond and we need to change that. It's about working with differentials and some other areas. I think we know what we have to do.

When it gets wet, we really struggle. We saw it in Estonia: when the rain came we couldn't really do anything, and we saw again in New Zealand that it was like that. We still had trouble. »

But that's not all, as the third in the general classification explains, 29 points behind his teammate Ott Tänak. “As well as improving performance, we need to make the car more comfortable to drive – we'll see, but that could also improve performance. I have a few ideas we could use, but the problem is we don't have any real gravel testing until next season. » Heureusement, le Catalonia Rally and the Rally of Japan are contested entirely on tarmac.

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