Saudi Arabia hosts its first-ever WRC round this week on the desert roads surrounding the city of Jeddah. The specially built stages contain a large number of loose stones, creating extra headaches for the crews.
“Anyone can win this. Even Nasser can win it,” Neuville said.
The Belgian was referring to Nasser Al-Attiyah, the desert rally specialist who has rented an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 car for the season finale. Al-Attiyah has no previous experience with a Rally1 car, but if luck is on his side, he could end up surprisingly high in the final classification.
“There will be a lot of surprises. But the profile of the rally itself is nice. Hopefully it won’t be too rough for our cars – but we’re only going to find out,” Neuville added.
He explained that the test stage already showed how demanding the event could be.
“Already this morning shakedown was bad. I did the fourth pass and it was a nightmare. At some point we will get through without problems. I don’t know when it is. Is it this weekend? We will see,” he said.
Neuville’s season has been far from ideal. He dropped out of the title fight a long time ago and has not managed to win a single rally this year.
The reason is largely down to Hyundai’s machinery, which has not been strong enough to challenge Toyota. The Belgian admitted the hunger for a win has been growing painfully.
In Saudi Arabia, Neuville does not need to focus on testing parts for next year; instead, he can push for a strong result without pressure.
“Realistically I know that it’s very difficult. Maybe here we have more chances this weekend because it’s not about pure performance,” Neuville assessed.
Rally Saudi Arabia begins on Wednesday evening with a short super special stage and concludes on Saturday.
