The reigning World Rally champion’s other motorsport life

Thierry Neuville will forever be defined as a World Rally champion and a member of rallying’s elite but, when it comes to motorsport, he is much more than just a driver.

In tandem with his own career, 2024 title winner Neuville is also a successful team owner and a force in developing rallying at a grassroots level.

In 2016, the Belgian founded the LifeLive Motorsport team, located in the small city of Saint Vith on the Belgian/German border. Over the past decade it has expanded to become a rally and circuit racing squad in its own right.

Initially, Neuville’s decision to start a motorsport team was born to help his younger brother Yannick compete in rallying, but it’s since exploded into a far-reaching operation with a focus on helping aspiring drivers into the discipline.

“It’s grown from a hobby to a company,” explains Neuville. “Together with my brother and partner we have been running the company mainly from a distance, which is not easy.

“Today we have 15 to 20 people. Cross Cars is our main business as a manufacturer. We do operations, we do manufacturing and any kind of trackdays. Then we added rallying and also some historic sportscar circuit racing [at events such as the Spa Classic] to our programme.”

“Motorsport is a very complicated business. It’s not so much fun honestly to work in all the time as you put in a lot of effort, and the return is very small, if there is some at all. However, I have always enjoyed being a manufacturer and a developer and somehow trying to grow the grassroots category like Cross Cars.”

Today the company is managed by Raphael de Borman, who is assisted by Yannick, although Thierry still plays an instrumental role. Cross Cars has been a real success story and a passion project for Thierry, and LifeLive has played a key role in establishing the category on a global level.

Cross Cars make up the bulk of LifeLive Motorsport’s business

Photo by: LifeLive

Cross Cars is a cost-effective entry-level motorsport based around an off-road, rear-engined, four-wheel-drive buggy, featuring a tubular chassis and rollcage. Often powered by motorcycle engines, it has rapidly developed into a popular global junior category, with vehicles ranging from €5000-€10,000.

Cross Cars has since been adopted as a discipline in the FIA Motorsport Games and is often seen as a class in national rallycross championships.  

Neuville played a role in helping the FIA form technical regulations for the Cross Car category. From there, LifeLive has since developed two Cross Cars, the TN5 (2019) and TN11 (2023), which it manufactures. The team has developed a distribution network across Europe, offering aspiring young drivers an affordable pathway into motorsport.  

“We have developed them for the FIA and developed basically the assembly and the whole project for them to share with ASNs [national sporting authorities] around the world,” explains Neuville.

“My part is mainly talking to the FIA and convincing them what should be the future strategy. That is all I can do; I’m not a designer or a welder or whatever” Thierry Neuville

“For me, if you compare costs and fun, there is nothing better at the moment. It is cheaper than any karting, circuit or rallying category.

“We have a good team in place, and everybody has worked hard to make it happen. My part is mainly talking to the FIA and convincing them what should be the future strategy. That is all I can do; I’m not a designer or a welder or whatever.”

Aside from the Cross Cars arm of the business, this year the operation has added a pair of Hyundai i20 Rally2 cars to its fold, which also includes a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 that customers can rent.

Former Citroen factory WRC driver Stephane Lefebvre jumped behind the wheel of a LifeLive prepared i20 Rally2 in the opening round of the FIA European Rally Championship in Sierra Morena in Spain, but the cars have been largely focused on competing in the Belgian Rally Championship, driven by Belgian former Junior WRC driver Tom Rensonnet and compatriot Niels Reynvoet.  

Two Hyundai i20 Rally2 cars have joined the LifeLive fold

Photo by: LifeLive

News that Neuville added the Rally2 cars to his stable led to suggestions that maybe his team could be gearing up for a future in the WRC, especially given the uncertainty surrounding Hyundai’s factory programme, which Neuville has been part of since the beginning in 2014.

There were suggestions that a private team could step in to run Hyundai’s WRC cars should it leave at the end of 2025, but it now appears that this is highly unlikely, with Neuville confident that Hyundai will at least see out the current Rally1 rules cycle, which concludes at the end of 2026.

“I think we will be here next year but I have no confirmation,” admits the 37-year-old. “I don’t know what would be the point for Hyundai to retire now with one year left of the current regulations as everything is there.”    

But what of the future? With the WRC ushering in new regulations from 2027, targeting not only manufacturers but also tuner operations to join the championship with cars built around Rally2 componentry and to a €345,000 cost cap, could this entice a team such as LifeLive to make the step up?

In short, Neuville doesn’t see himself mirroring Malcolm Wilson as a rally driver-turned-team owner with grand plans to build up an operation like Wilson’s M-Sport, where he finished as the WRC title runner-up in 2013.

“My recent focus was and is on trying to give me the opportunity to continue rallying and that is still my main target at the moment,” he says. “After that I don’t know for how long I will still be rallying. I would say it is promising for the near future, but what is beyond I don’t know.

“Honestly, I have put a lot of effort and energy in rallying and I don’t think I would have enough energy now to go and build up a team where we develop [cars]. Building a team and cars is nice but the difficult part is finding the funding to make it happen.

“I think in the time we are living in it is not possible anymore. Malcolm has been living from manufacturer support for many years and he is struggling a lot at the moment, so that shows how difficult it is.

Engel (centre) and Lotterer (right) tried out Neuville’s rally machines

Photo by: LifeLive

“Honestly, I have worked very hard for many years and I cannot give up everything I have got over the last year trying to build something that is a far dream. It would be far too risky.”

Moving away from the serious talk of dreams of entering the WRC, Neuville has always liked to share his love of motorsport with others, and through LifeLive he regularly organises days to showcase rallying.

Last month his close friends, three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Andre Lotterer and FIA GT World Cup winner Maro Engel, were among guests who piloted Cross Cars and Neuville’s own 2012 factory Citroen DS3 WRC and 2021 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC on a closed asphalt stage in France.

“I made sure I had time because it has always been a dream of mine to try a WRC car,” says Lotterer. “The Citroen was cool and you quickly feel at home. I loved the sequential gearbox, and it is incredible how well-developed the suspension is in those cars – and that car was from 2012. 

“It’s mindblowing. I was like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are really crazy.’ It’s very impressive how they control in such tight spaces, and the speeds” Andre Lotterer

“Immediately you feel how agile the car is and you can always adapt and play with the car in a very controlled way, so it gives you a lot of confidence from the start. The car is really made for this situation and the grip window is quite wide and you can always do something.

“It’s crazy and mindblowing. I was like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are really crazy.’ It’s very impressive how they control in such tight spaces, and the speeds.

“When you don’t know the road, you are thinking, ‘No way is this going to work’, and the car just does it – and he [Neuville] does it in a calm and precise manner. It is very impressive.”

Fun trackdays aside, what does the future hold for Neuville’s LifeLive Motorsport? Neuville’s answer is intriguing, offering more questions than it provides answers: “I don’t know but we are going to find out. We have a good team and we are restructuring a bit and putting everything in place to be better armed for what is coming.”

This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the August 2025 issue and subscribe today.

Chance to drive Citroen DS3 WRC was “crazy and mindblowing” for Lotterer

Photo by: Julien Pixelrallye