Thierry Neuville Confident 2025 WRC Hyundai Holds Great Potential Despite Challenges

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Highlights

Neuville believes Hyundai’s 2025 WRC car has greater potential.
Hyundai faces performance gap compared to Toyota this season.
Team tested 2024 and 2025 models for Central European Rally.
Neuville and teammates actively testing to improve car setup.
Car’s setup window differs; improvements remain a work in progress.
Central European Rally seen as key event to assess progress.

Thierry Neuville says Hyundai’s 2025 WRC i20 N offers greater upside despite a current pace deficit to Toyota, as the team intensifies testing before the Central European Rally.

Following Chile, Hyundai compares 2024 and 2025 packages to clarify asphalt performance, reacting to difficulty matching Toyota during earlier asphalt outings.

Neuville, Adrien Fourmaux, and Ott Tänak expand mileage through rallies and tests to refine setup direction and validate development items.

Thierry Neuville and Hyundai’s 2025 i20 N undergoing development on asphalt stages — Image Credit: Autosport

Early runs expose a different, narrower setup window than 2024, demanding changes in ride, differential preloads, and aero balance for mixed, pollution-prone asphalt.

Neuville maintains the 2025 platform carries more headroom, provided Hyundai accelerates fixes identified from the extra mileage gathered over recent events and test days.

“For me, the 2025 car has much more potential than the 2024 car,” says Neuville.

Hyundai runs back-to-back evaluations between the 2024 and 2025 cars to establish reference deltas and isolate gains from powertrain, suspension geometry, and damper evolution.

Back-to-back testing between 2024 and 2025 cars underpins Hyundai’s setup direction before the Central European Rally.

Toyota’s benchmark asphalt balance sets the target; Hyundai prioritizes predictable rotation and tire usage to preserve grip across long loops and changeable temperatures.

Hyundai’s WRC i20 N on asphalt as the team chases balance and tire management gains — Image Credit: Hyundai Motor Group

The Central European Rally becomes the clearest yardstick, given Neuville’s 2023 victory and its variable weather, cuts, and surface pollution that challenge setup breadth.

Road position and rain can punish Hyundai, especially if early running drags mud and leaves onto braking zones, distorting grip profiles and driver confidence.

Hyundai identifies a different setup window for the 2025 i20 N, making balance and tire management central to gains.

Fourmaux’s ERC Croatia mileage and planned Herbst Rallye entry complement Neuville’s East Belgian Rally running, broadening feedback across compounds, cuts, and road evolutions.

Tänak’s return to testing restores a second experienced reference, improving correlation between simulator, seven-post rig work, and stage behavior under varying cambers and compressions.

Hyundai targets incremental gains over headline upgrades, seeking reliability consolidation and sharper setup maps to close the Toyota gap through the season’s remaining asphalt mileage.

Visual Summary

2024 i20 N

2025 i20 N
“Much more potential”

Toyota

Hyundai Climbing Higher
— 2025 i20 N Has “Much More Potential”

Neuville sees room to grow: Better pace, lots of testing, but Toyota still in sight.
Unpredictable weather could shake things up at Central European Rally.

🔧
Testing Ramp-Up

⏫
Performance Gains

🌧️
Weather Wildcard

“Hard work, better data and fresh upgrades
are fueling Hyundai’s climb toward the summit.”

Zane Muniz

Zane Muniz writes across NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, IMSA, NHRA, and dirt-racing news. His breaking-news alerts and event previews ensure motorsport fans never miss a lap, drift, or drag-strip showdown.