Hyundai WRT

[mknight]

There have been a lot of talks about Ott Tänaks misfortune with Hyundai. Anybody has not been mentioning the situation with Thierry Neuville. His last win was in Monte Carlo 2020?!?. So it has been one and a half season without any wins.

That's actually really good observation!

Neuville is somehow always around there and fights for win every few rallies at least (but not every rally), but he has not actually won anything for quite long.

[denkimi]

There have been a lot of talks about Ott Tänaks misfortune with Hyundai. Anybody has not been mentioning the situation with Thierry Neuville. His last win was in Monte Carlo 2020?!?. So it has been one and a half season without any wins.

Out of those last 14 rallies, 10 have been won by toyota. 6 of those were by some bloke called Sebastian.

What i feared at the end of 2019 has come true, we are back at vw levels of dominance with ogier in the toyota.

[masa90]

Yeah not sure if the countless tech problems Hyundai are suffering is down to them going over the line in battling with Toyota?

Luckily they atleast are in the mix. Toyota and Ogier are sadly too good, but luckily it is not as bad as Ford for example.

[AnttiL]

Neuville's co-driver change probably also has compromised his performance this year.

Last year he was second in Sardegna and Turkey. Car failed in Mexico whereas he made mistakes in Estonia and Monza.

Croatia was a rare case of both Tänak and Neuville finishing with no issues but Neuville being faster. (Also the first full tarmac rally for Tänak in the Hyundai).

Hopefully the fortune turns in Ypres.

[EstWRC]

Out of those last 14 rallies, 10 have been won by toyota. 6 of those were by some bloke called Sebastian.

What i feared at the end of 2019 has come true, we are back at vw levels of dominance with ogier in the toyota.

last year he and Evans both won 2 rallies, isnt exactly dominating?

He has always been excellent capitalizing when others have misfortunes or make mistakes, and thats exactly what he has done this year at Sardegna and Kenya and his win count is so big (well its just part of this sport and winning titles). The only technical misfortune Ogier has had in one and a half years is Turkey last year if i remember correctly.

IMO he was really dominating on VW days, won rallies even when cleaning for two days. that was completely different level what he is doing now.

[mknight]

What Ogier is doing now is IMO much more impressive than what he did in VW (especially in 2014-2015 when Polo was clearly best).

In Polo, also before the introduction of "anti-Ogier" two day sweeping he could push 100% for 2-3 stages and already had decent lead, no stress afterwards.

Nowadays everything is much closer. Ogier is very often 2-4th fighting with someone with better roadposition . Yet he stays cool, pushes when he can and gets points. (Rare time he didn't keep his cool was in Arctic vs Solberg).

I am quite sure he could drive faster on many stages this year, but at a higher risk of mistakes. Point gain would easily be lower.

He is a champion cause he is using his head more than others. Not because he only gains from others mistakes.

Since you mention Sardinia his first day drive was the most impressive drive so far this year to me.

[focus206]

There have been a lot of talks about Ott Tänaks misfortune with Hyundai. Anybody has not been mentioning the situation with Thierry Neuville. His last win was in Monte Carlo 2020?!?. So it has been one and a half season without any wins.

There's not much to say about him, many often complained how he pushes too much and this year he isn't pushing as much, maybe he's being more cautious also because the new codriver. He made just one serious driving mistake, in Portugal. In Croatia he could have won, but Hyundai decided to lose with their tyre choice. In Kenya he could have won, but the car fell apart. Considering Hyundai was able to win only one rally this season, I don't see his situation particularly bad. Nobody can win this championship apart from Ogier anyway.

[focus206]

Ogier's dominance in VW was absolute, but VW was miles ahead of the other cars.
This year in Toyota, I don't see how he's being that incredibly smart. We know he's very consistent, and that is helped by the good reliability of Toyota.
I don't believe for a second Hyundai has nothing to do with all those suspension failures (among other reliability problems) and it's just Tanak and Neuville "not driving safe". Tanak is a world champion and Neuville won many events, they know how to back off, it would be an insult to their intelligence.
After all, last year it was Evans who almost won the championship, and this year Evans will probably end runner-up again: not a coincidence it's another Toyota.

[denkimi]

last year he and Evans both won 2 rallies, isnt exactly dominating?

Remember there were only 7 rallies last year. That still a 30% win ratio for each.

In 2013 he had a 64% win rate, in 2014 and 2015 it was 61%, in 2016 he was at 46%. Today he sits at 57% so far, that's starting to get pretty close.

For comparison, in 2017 it was 15%, in 2018 it was 30% and in 2019 it was 23%.

[trykmann]

I was reading some old news about the new R5 development and this comment got my attention:

“The feeling is very, very good,” he said. “It’s predictable and consistent when it comes to the roll centre and the transition of grip and weight in the corner. This sort of thing’s not going to win you a load of seconds in terms of performance, but what it does do is give you a sensation of what the car’s doing and why it’s doing it.”

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/what-...st-rally2-car/

I am just guessing, but this might describe also quite accurately, why a lot of drivers couldn't handle the current WRC car as they maybe wanted.