Hyundai has celebrated the manufacturers’ championship twice before, in 2019 and 2020. However, the team has never secured a drivers’ championship title.
Now, Thierry Neuville is on the verge of clinching the WRC drivers’ title. His closest challenger is his teammate Ott Tänak, who is 29 points behind the Belgian.
In the manufacturers’ standings, Hyundai holds a 17-point lead over Toyota. While the drivers’ title seems closer, the battle for the manufacturers’ championship is still wide open.
Hyundai aims to secure Neuville’s drivers’ title next week at the Central European Rally, the penultimate round of the season. At the same time, the team must fend off Toyota’s challenge in the manufacturers’ championship.
“We know that it’s the ‘money time’ now. We have to score points, so that’s our priority,” Hyundai’s Technical Director Francois-Xavier Demaison emphasized to DirtFish.
The situation is unique in that Neuville may need to avoid taking big risks to keep his championship on track. However, Hyundai also cannot afford to be overly cautious—Toyota halved Hyundai’s lead from 35 to just 17 points at the previous round in Chile.
Demaison is confident Hyundai can handle the pressure.
“It’s a good problem to have, isn’t it? Personally, I like it, because it’s the type of fight I like, so managing both of them and we’ll fight for both championships.”
“The next two rallies are tarmac rallies, so we are looking forward for these two rallies where at least for the Friday Ott and Thierry will have a very good start position. So it’s promising for them,” Demaison said.
