How Neuville 2.0 conquered new-look WRC to abolish his nearly-man mantra

Six winners, a controversial new points system, the joint-closest winning margin, champions making uncharacteristic errors, a mid-season regulations ‘hokey cokey’, young guns coming to the fore and a title decider for the ages. That was the 2024 World Rally Championship in a nutshell.

But ultimately it was the year that transformed the WRC’s nearly man Thierry Neuville into a world champion, alongside co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe. The Belgian has strived for 17 years to achieve his childhood dream and that dream is now reality – he is the 20th WRC drivers’ champion.

Hyundai’s first drivers’ world rally champion repeated the feats of the great Sebastiens, Loeb and Ogier, to win the title by leading the championship from start to the finish. This epitomised the 2024-spec Neuville, who not only showed the speed that’s been ever-present, but this year had a much tougher steely resolve, coupled with a pragmatic approach, resulting in remarkable consistency and fewer errors.

“It is the best reward we can get for all the hard work we have put in over the last few years,” acknowleged Neuville. “It has been a nice but challenging journey.”

Before a wheel had been turned, the 2024 title race took on a different complexion, with reigning champion Kalle Rovanpera opting not to defend his crown and instead contest a partial campaign with Toyota. Heading into the season, it seemed that the battle would be a three-way fight between Neuville, his returning Hyundai team-mate Ott Tanak and Toyota’s three-time title runner-up Elfyn Evans. He was joined by Takamoto Katsuta as the second full-time driver, with eight-time champion Ogier running a partial campaign.

A decision to employ a complex points system to spice up Sundays added another variable to the mix. The top 10 crews at the end of Saturday could pocket 18-15-13-10-8-6-4-3-2-1, but those points could only be claimed by reaching the rally finish on Sunday, when another tranche of points were up for grabs.

Neuville (second right) made best use of the new points system for 2024 during his tussle with Evans (second left) and Tanak (centre, right)

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Sunday effectively became a whole new rally with points (7-6-5-4-3-2-1) awarded to the fastest seven crews on the final day’s stages in addition to the 5-4-3-2-1 points on offer for the Power Stage. It ensured that drivers could no longer cruise through Sundays saving tyres for the Power Stage, which led to drama-filled climaxes. But it proved difficult to explain and was widely criticised, even labelled “a joke” by Ogier, who was among the majority of drivers who felt that it devalued the victory.

Whoever mastered the new points system would be rewarded handsomely, and that was certainly Hyundai, with Neuville leading the charge. A whopping 104 points of his 242 total came from the final day of events with team-mate Tanak delivering 98, while the best from Toyota was Evans’s 76 points haul.

“We knew Sundays were crucial,” reflects Neuville. “Despite being in the points we always pushed on Sunday so we risked a bit, especially in the beginning of the year, but we knew that those points we got were the most valuable. We were surprised by Toyota on Sundays – maybe they didn’t have the speed to follow us because we were pushing really hard or they didn’t understand how crucial those points can be.”

"There were lots of part-time drivers and people jumping in who took all the victories away, but every time on Sunday we were there and we took a lot of points" Thierry Neuville

Sundays proved decisive in the outcome of both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles. But mastering the system was just one element of Neuville’s title season, which he has broken into three key steps.

It all began with a big push at the start of the year, highlighted by a stunning display in Monte Carlo where Neuville took out the maximum 30 points on offer. The feat wasn’t repeated by any driver for the remainder of the campaign.

The dominant display warranted high praise from Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul: “I hope that maybe what happened this weekend is also because he is a stronger person, stronger driver and stronger competitor than he has ever been.”

As the championship headed to Sweden in February, talk of the points system was rumbling on but it had been somewhat superseded by the FIA’s proposal to safeguard the future of the WRC, which triggered a regulations debate. The plan was to remove hybrid power from, and reduce the aero of, the Rally1 cars for next year before a more significant rule shift for 2027.

Neuville's maximum points haul from the Monte Carlo Rally was never repeated in 2024 and established him in a lead he'd never lose

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

This ultimately led to teams writing to the FIA stating a wish for the regulations to remain stable moving into 2025 and 2026, and so the motorsport governing body made a U-turn. But, come the Acropolis Rally in September, an enforcement of Compact Dynamics’ safety guidelines for hybrid units meant the future of hybrid power was again on the table, and this time a decision was made to remove it for 2025 due to spiralling costs to maintain and repair the units.

In Sweden the drivers’ fears over the points system devaluing the victory were felt and it wouldn’t be the only occasion. Esapekka Lappi, occupying a part-time role at Hyundai following the return of Tanak, scored only the second win of his WRC career, ending a six-and-a-half-year drought. In doing so, he picked up 19 points while Evans, who finished second, left the weekend with 24 thanks to his Sunday points haul.

That would be the high point of a difficult season for Lappi, which delivered just a further 14 points from Kenya, Latvia, Finland and Chile while sharing the third car with Dani Sordo and Andreas Mikkelsen, the last-named also struggling to shine on asphalt rallies.

Also enjoying a high in Sweden was Adrien Fourmaux, who claimed a maiden podium by finishing third in his M-Sport Ford – a result that lifted the Rally1 returnee to third in the championship, above Tanak, whom he replaced. Absent from the podium in fourth, Neuville maintained his plan, ending the weekend with a three-point lead, while Evans emerged as the early title challenger after Tanak’s Friday crash into a snowbank.

Kenya was where Neuville encountered one of only two technical issues, a fuel-pressure problem meaning he joined the list of crews to suffer delays in the WRC’s most arduous rally. But again, he salvaged 19 points, with 11 of those coming from Sunday.

The victory was taken by Rovanpera – the first of four triumphs for the Finn – as he produced a stunning drive, avoiding Kenya’s pitfalls to lead Toyota team-mate Katsuta home. The rally was Katsuta’s highlight, and a series of crashes resulted in the team benching him for Chile, before fighting back to strong results under immense pressure in Central Europe and the Japan finale.

Croatia proved how competitive this year’s championship was as Evans and Neuville sat tied for the lead after more than 70 miles on Friday. But the victory, the first of three, was claimed by Ogier after Super Sunday earned its reputation as catalyst for drama with both Evans and Neuville crashing, dropping them behind the Toyota star.

During a part-time campaign, Rovanpera scored four superb wins that helped Toyota to clinch the manufacturers' title

Photo by: Toyota Racing

For championship leader Neuville, step two, and the most mentally testing part of the season, was on the horizon – seven consecutive gravel rallies where he would have to act as road sweeper.

“I suffered and also mentally it was tough,” he explains. “There were lots of part-time drivers and people jumping in who took all the victories away, but every time on Sunday we were there and we took a lot of points.”

In Portugal he finished third and it was here where Evans’s challenge began to falter and Tanak’s ignited. Evans felt “everything he touched went wrong”, an assessment that is difficult to argue against.

Fast gravel rallies in Poland and Latvia particularly challenged Neuville’s resolve but somehow he salvaged 14 points from the former

Struggles for balance in his GR Yaris were compounded by a puncture and broken radiator, while co-driver Scott Martin was forced to read pacenotes from a back-up on his mobile phone after leaving his book at a time control. A six-point deficit to Neuville duly ballooned to 24. Three more second-place finishes followed, but Evans’s lack of confidence to push his GR Yaris to the limit proved costly.

Tanak, on the other hand, scored his first podium of the year in Portugal on the back of disappointment after hitting a rock in Kenya. The Estonian followed Ogier, who took a record-breaking sixth Portugal win.

“Let’s say, we are not in a place with the car where I have the speed of the others, but at least we are not far away, and if we keep pushing, we should be in the fight,” said Tanak at the time.

Tanak did haul himself into the title fight at the next round in Sardinia, where Neuville suffered a first major setback when he “lost concentration for a fraction of a second” and found himself beached in a ditch. But this is where his Sunday strategy came into its own to leave the Italian island event, which ran to a new 48-hour compact format, with 12 points.

Tanak snatched first victory of his Hyundai return in Sardinia after final-stage puncture for Ogier

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

That stat was overshadowed by the fact that Tanak snatched the win from Ogier as a final-stage puncture resulted in the joint-closest winning margin in championship history (with the 2011 Rally Jordan). The normally reserved Tanak let out a roar as he triumphed by 0.2s.

Fast gravel rallies in Poland and Latvia particularly challenged Neuville’s resolve but somehow he salvaged 14 points from the former, which produced one of the drives of the season.

Rovanpera was at home repairing his jet ski when the call came from Toyota to pack his bags and head to Poland to replace the injured Ogier, who was involved in a road traffic accident during recce. Despite a rushed, limited preparation and sleepless nights watching onboards, Rovanpera blew his rivals away to score a second win of the year, while Tanak’s victory hopes were ended by a collision with a deer.

“I was watching NHL finals with my friend and the next morning I was waking up for the recce,” said Rovanpera, who jetted from Poland to Imola the morning after the rally to prepare for his maiden circuit racing outing in Carrera Cup Benelux. “I have to say it was quite clever [the way we drove].”

Rovanpera delivered another dominant victory in Latvia’s WRC debut, an event in which he was scheduled to compete.

It was here where Neuville’s frustrations of opening the road boiled to the surface, directing his anger at part-time drivers such as Rovanpera and the impressive Martins Sesks. The local boy scored two stage wins and cruelly missed out on a maiden podium in only his second Rally1 outing for M-Sport when a technical issue robbed him of third position during the final stage.

“We did a great job in the beginning of the year, and now there’s no reward at all,” complained Neuville. “We could have, whoever it is, Ott, Elfyn or myself, the winner of the championship at the end of the year winning maybe one rally.”

Rovanpera and Ogier effectively told Neuville ‘to get on with it’. “That’s just how it is, you need to take it,” said Rovanpera. “Otherwise, if you don’t want to do it, don’t lead the championship.” Ogier went a step further at the Acropolis Rally, saying “maybe he should stop crying and learn driving first on the road” after taking 45 seconds from the Hyundai driver despite starting only one position behind sweeper Neuville.

Continually opening the road was a cause of frustration for Neuville, pictured in Latvia, where Rovanpera won again

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński

Neuville refused to bite on the barb thrown out by Ogier, whose part-time season turned into more of a full-time campaign, emerging as Toyota’s best shot at the drivers’ title. Toyota persuaded Ogier to contest the remaining rounds after finishing second in Latvia and inheriting a victory in Finland following one of Toyota’s ‘Black Sundays’.

Rovanpera was denied a home win yet again, rolling out of a dominant lead after hitting a rock that had been dragged out onto the road on the penultimate stage. It was here where another rising Finnish star, Sami Pajari, finished fourth on his Rally1 debut for Toyota.

According to Neuville, the Acropolis Rally was the turning point and represented the start of the third part of his campaign – managing the gap, which stood at 27 points coming into the event. He held his nerve to take a second win of the season from the safe hands of team-mate Sordo as Hyundai locked out the podium.

Neuville’s impressive Acropolis victory afforded him a 34-point lead over Tanak while Ogier’s title prospects got fainter when he hit a rock in Chile

A turbo failure ended Ogier’s victory hopes early on before he rolled on the final stage, triggering another “Black Sunday”, as Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala described it. It was at this point that he felt his team’s manufacturers’ title hopes were all but over.

To add insult to injury for Ogier, who was clearly the fastest driver in Greece, he was handed a suspended €30,000 fine for comments directed at race control about poor visibility from hanging dust in the opening stage. It seemed a strange punishment considering Tanak avoided sanction when he struck a promotional arch that had fallen on a stage in Latvia, before officials moved to halt the test, and suggested that race control was too busy having lunch to red flag the stage…

Ogier and Tanak both vowed to reduce their interactions with the media at Chile’s September round in protest against the FIA’s widespread move to punish negative comments and swearing by drivers in motorsport.

In terms of the title race, Neuville’s impressive Acropolis victory afforded him a 34-point lead over Tanak while Ogier’s title prospects got fainter when he hit a rock in Chile. An error while leading in Central Europe, prior to a heavy crash on the penultimate stage that resulted in a retirement, sparked anger that is rarely seen from Ogier: “I was more angry due to the fact that I put a lot of effort into all these last races and everything was close to being perfect, but that’s rallying. It needs just a fine mistake to ruin it all and it was hard to accept.”

Ogier was frustrated by losing strong points opportunities in Chile and Central Europe

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Central Europe was Neuville’s first match point, but two spins while leading handed nearest rival Tanak the victory, taking the title fight down to the wire in Japan. Although Neuville was the heavy favourite, he needed all his mental resolve to fight back from a turbo failure that left his title prospects hanging in the balance.

Ultimately the title was decided when rally leader Tanak rolled on Sunday in what he described as a “complete f*** up”. It was a big surprise to Neuville as he and Wydaeghe celebrated at the side of the road, knowing the dream was reality.

Ogier put to bed a series of misfortune from Greece, Chile and Central Europe by taking advantage of a dramatic turnaround in the manufacturers’ title race caused by Tanak’s sudden exit. Toyota had trailed Hyundai by 15 points heading into Japan but found itself level heading into the Power Stage, where Ogier weaved his magic to deliver one of the drives of the season, win the test and snatch the title from under Hyundai’s nose by three points.

“I never lost the faith that I can still do it,” smiled Ogier. “It was one of the best days of my career in terms of emotion to win the manufacturers’ title on the Power Stage in the last minute.”

There was a mixture of emotions at Hyundai. “Just as I feel it is deserved for Thierry, I feel it is also deserved that Toyota are where they are, which is on top,” admitted Abiteboul. “It is clearly painful for every single team member – just like I’m sure it was painful for them [Ott and Martin Jarveoja]. I want to believe we are all going to learn and improve from the accident.”

Given the drama that unfolded, Evans’s victory – his first of the season – almost went forgotten as the Welshman ended a difficult year on a high.

“I actually think there was quite a bit missing, especially on the rougher gravel rallies, and that was the Achilles’ heel – that side of the job needs to improve quite a bit,” said Evans, reflecting on a year where he finished runner-up for the fourth time.

While Japan was the closing chapter for the title race, it also featured the end of a Fourmaux/M-Sport partnership that climaxed with a fifth podium.

Evans had to wait until the end of the season in Japan to finally score a first win that ultimately lifted him to second in the points

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“It was a big challenge at the beginning of the year as the [team] were losing Tanak, the car was not reliable, so the future seemed to be quite dark, but then at the end I think we showed the light,” said Fourmaux ahead of his move to Hyundai for 2025. “It has been a great season and a really good comeback in Rally1.”

M-Sport remains hopeful that it can retain Gregoire Munster for 2025 after the Luxembourger showed flashes of speed during a challenging season that yielded fifths in Sardinia, Central Europe and Japan.

Such was the drama of 2024, it’s fair to say that some may still be digesting the last 12 months when it all starts again in Monte Carlo in January, when for the first time Neuville will run with a new number: “It is no secret we have two number 1s on the car [he normally runs #11], but now it will only be one. I’m looking forward to it.”

Can Neuville scale new heights in 2025 and beat Rovanpera on his return to full-time status?

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