Hyundai WRT

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Originally Posted by trykmann

Neuville is not a world champion due his own driving mistakes. Ofcourse he has had technical problems, but a lot rallies have been lost by himself. Lets think about Ypres 2022 or 2023 Croatia



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How about Monte-Carlo & Sweden 2017 when he was leading comfortably and crashed out in both? Germany that year? Catalunya? Toyota were still fresh and that Hyundai was fast (& relatively reliable) straight out of the box and even the great Ogier only managed to win twice that year, half the times Neuville had won. I’m not saying he’s had his fair share of issues but the fact that he’s always struggled in Finland with his car tells you something and I’m sorry someone mentioned how many times he’s beaten Tänak in the same car, let’s not forget that he developed that car from scratch and Ott came during covid year, last year on equal terms he beat Neuville fair and square, even on his own back yard (due to Neuville’s mistake). Now, how many times has Neuville come close to Tänak or even Evans for that matter in Finland or Estonia? As someone earlier mentioned it, I’m sorry but yes, he doesn’t have it, does it mean he should retire? No, he’s one of the contributing factors for making the championship interesting, however IMHO Hyundai should’ve given him the boot last year, and stick with Ott instead, but that ship has sailed.

Neuville could be champion in 2018, when he was leading rally Turkey and leading a Championship, but he had to retire due to technical issue..

A pity none of the Hyundai drivers have shown much interest in doing the N24 with Hyundai; Jari-Matti did it in a Focus ST back in the late 00s.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

A pity none of the Hyundai drivers have shown much interest in doing the N24 with Hyundai; Jari-Matti did it in a Focus ST back in the late 00s.

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They probably wanted more money....

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Originally Posted by trykmann

Neuville is not a world champion due his own driving mistakes. Ofcourse he has had technical problems, but a lot rallies have been lost by himself. Lets think about Ypres 2022 or 2023 Croatia



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You chose 2 examples in which if he had won, nothing would have changed, since he was not in the fight for the championship (I doubt anyone will be in the fight against Kalle for long this year). Also, imagine Hyundai being mad for Ypres 2022 after causing Neuville and Tanak to retire or lose minutes for an infinite amount of gremlins for half a season :D
The only serious mistakes that costed him the championships were in 2017. In 2018, the biggest blow was the defective damper his car had in Turkey, which could have been a crucial win.

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Originally Posted by CeskyOndra

Neuville could be champion in 2018, when he was leading rally Turkey and leading a Championship, but he had to retire due to technical issue..

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His best chance was 2017. He should have been champion then but he blew it by crashing in the first 2 rallies while having no reason to push.

But some people seem to forget that he's 5 times vice champion, 4 times behing ogier. Anyone claiming he is not in the top 3 is just not seeing clearly.

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Originally Posted by focus206

You chose 2 examples in which if he had won, nothing would have changed, since he was not in the fight for the championship (I doubt anyone will be in the fight against Kalle for long this year). Also, imagine Hyundai being mad for Ypres 2022 after causing Neuville and Tanak to retire or lose minutes for an infinite amount of gremlins for half a season :D
The only serious mistakes that costed him the championships were in 2017. In 2018, the biggest blow was the defective damper his car had in Turkey, which could have been a crucial win.

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2018 Turkey was indeed a technical issue, caused by mechanic not doing his job properly in service. But then in Australia, still in the title fight, he made mistake and lost his chance already on SS6.

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Originally Posted by mknight

2018 Turkey was indeed a technical issue, caused by mechanic not doing his job properly in service. But then in Australia, still in the title fight, he made mistake and lost his chance already on SS6.

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Every driver makes mistakes during the season, even Ogier that year was off road in Portugal and Turkey (and the timecard stuff in Sardegna). The point some people are making here, is that Neuville apparently blew so many chances for the championship for driving mistakes, when only in 2017 you can pinpoint what made him lose the title - in retrospect, since the biggest mistakes were in the first 2 rallies.
I'd say the biggest "lost championship" moment belongs to Evans in Monza 2020 while driving the best car, should he be booted as well? Don't think so.

In 2018 Neuville went off in Monte, Finland, Wales and Australia.

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Originally Posted by focus206

You chose 2 examples in which if he had won, nothing would have changed, since he was not in the fight for the championship (I doubt anyone will be in the fight against Kalle for long this year). Also, imagine Hyundai being mad for Ypres 2022 after causing Neuville and Tanak to retire or lose minutes for an infinite amount of gremlins for half a season :D
The only serious mistakes that costed him the championships were in 2017. In 2018, the biggest blow was the defective damper his car had in Turkey, which could have been a crucial win.

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Yes, these were the latest ones and did not affect the championship standings.

Let's take a look at 2019 season then. The crashes in Chile and Turkey did not help at all with the competiton against Tänak.

When you are driving against champions like Ogier, then you just can't afford these kind of mistakes. Ogier made usually one mistake per season.

I like to see him in the championship and he is fast as the other best drivers. He just too often makes costly mistakes and looses valuable points.


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