Quote Originally Posted by BigWorm View Post
I think so, yes. The delay of the 2015 car being the best sign of that.
Delaying of a car isn't anything to do with managing a driver. It was the reactions that came after that which seemed to cause all the problems.

People gave Matton a lot of crap for how he managed Meeke. He never said close to what Penasse said about Neuville last year.

Penasse said: “Since he [Neuville] crashed in Argentina, he is no longer within the pace of the pack and the most annoying thing is that neither he, his co-driver or his entourage has any form of explanation. We are happy to have Hayden, because with him driving we are making progress.

“We spoke a lot after Finland in order to try to help him or see if there were any problems, we brought to him certain elements to show that he wasn’t really going anywhere. Even though he disagrees, people who saw him on the stages tell us: “He’s not as quick as he was.” And these are not just any old spectators, these are former drivers; people who know rallying.

“We were frank with him and we told him we no longer see the Thierry from the past. Now, to finish fifth, he needs two punctures and two people going off in front of him.”
http://www.maxrally.com/2015/08/26/n...thing-to-prove

I'm not sure how much the driver rotation with the 20 car really helped - especially with last year's very public "benching" of Neuville at the end of the season to 'give him his confidence back'. I think Hyundai also struggled with tensions between Neuville and Paddon. You can see their reluctance to favour drivers, and the fact they did the 10-round paperwork for Sordo this year, rather than being forced to pick between Hayden and Thierry, speaks volumes.

Ultimately I think Neuville was probably extremely difficult behind the scenes, and Hyundai's top brass reacted to it quite badly. No one is blameless. Probably the best thing is to go their separate ways.