Rally Chile Biobio 2025

[focus206]

Cleaning in Saudi won't matter at all. I heard it will be all about survival.. It's worse than Turkey was..

I expected it to be sandy with cleaning, like some rallies in the Middle East... I guess it could be rockier than I thought

[focus206]

It’s actually shocking when you lay it out like that. Clearly in the switch to non-hybrid and Hankook, Toyota have done a better job of adapting their car.

Definitely. Which is a shame, because last year Hyundai was much closer to Toyota, although still a bit slower and more unreliable. This year, not a chance. And the gap we saw in Canarias was straight up embarassing for them.

[flat_right]

Definitely. Which is a shame, because last year Hyundai was much closer to Toyota, although still a bit slower and more unreliable. This year, not a chance. And the gap we saw in Canarias was straight up embarassing for them.

Was it really much closer? IMHO it is exactly the same. This year Rovanpera and especially Ogier haven't binned (like in 2024) and Hyundai just falls apart in Ott's case (here in Chile, in Safari (broken driveshaft), Portugal (power steering). All these have come from rally lead. How many technical failures can you name from Toyota side? One can argue, that Ott is driving too roughly but this is the only way you can drive against Toyota if you want to win.

Other problems for Tänak this year... In Monte there was also steering issue, Sweden engine issue (oil on the windscreen), Spain.. was just pain. Don't know what car did Hyundai bring there but this one wasn't a Rally1 car. in Greece gearbox, in Paraguay he had a puncture being really close to lead. Ok, this can happen to anyone but the pattern his here. Maybe there was something more but these came in my mind first.

TL;DR Really hard to be a Tänak fan.

[trykmann]

Was it really much closer? IMHO it is exactly the same. This year Rovanpera and especially Ogier haven't binned (like in 2024) and Hyundai just falls apart in Ott's case (here in Chile, in Safari (broken driveshaft), Portugal (power steering). All these have come from rally lead. How many technical failures can you name from Toyota side? One can argue, that Ott is driving too roughly but this is the only way you can drive against Toyota if you want to win.

Other problems for Tänak this year... In Monte there was also steering issue, Sweden engine issue (oil on the windscreen), Spain.. was just pain. Don't know what car did Hyundai bring there but this one wasn't a Rally1 car. in Greece gearbox, in Paraguay he had a puncture being really close to lead. Ok, this can happen to anyone but the pattern his here. Maybe there was something more but these came in my mind first.

TL;DR Really hard to be a Tänak fan.

Punctures are also in some cases the drivers fault, but still the car died on a water crossing and the front damper broke on the powerstage in Paraguay. These faults played a major role in the overall Sunday points classification.

[focus206]

Was it really much closer? IMHO it is exactly the same. This year Rovanpera and especially Ogier haven't binned (like in 2024) and Hyundai just falls apart in Ott's case (here in Chile, in Safari (broken driveshaft), Portugal (power steering). All these have come from rally lead. How many technical failures can you name from Toyota side? One can argue, that Ott is driving too roughly but this is the only way you can drive against Toyota if you want to win.

Other problems for Tänak this year... In Monte there was also steering issue, Sweden engine issue (oil on the windscreen), Spain.. was just pain. Don't know what car did Hyundai bring there but this one wasn't a Rally1 car. in Greece gearbox, in Paraguay he had a puncture being really close to lead. Ok, this can happen to anyone but the pattern his here. Maybe there was something more but these came in my mind first.

TL;DR Really hard to be a Tänak fan.

Last year I don't remember any major (meaning causing the loss of several minutes or superrally) technical trouble for Tanak, his misfortunes came from elsewhere. Neuville had broken fuel pump in Safari and broken turbo in Japan. As for the 3rd driver, I remember Lappi with a broken driveshaft in Safari and looking at ewrc-results, he seemed to have more technical trouble at the end of the season, but honestly I don't remember if those were consequences of mistakes.
And speed wise too, Hyundai last year didn't feel ages behind Toyota, even with Ogier driving at the end of the season.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

It makes you wonder if Tanak can really go through another year like this with fault after fault on the Hyundai. Here in Chile was yet another rally he could/should have won only to be denied by his car.

I suppose he might continue in 2026 with Hyundai if he cant get into Toyota, but it may just be going through the motions and picking up the money before probable retirement.