Thierry Neuville falls more than ten minutes behind the rally winner at the 2026 Monte Carlo Rally – What’s wrong with Hyundai?
The 2024 world champion experienced a disaster at the 2026 Monte Carlo Rally. While Toyota was in a league of its own at the season opener of the World Rally Championship (WRC), Thierry Neuville struggled to a distant fifth place. A result that raises more questions than it answers.
Even before the first meter of the Monte Carlo Rally, Thierry Neuville sounded unusually subdued. Anyone reading between the lines quickly realized that the champion had lost his “popometer.” He would be “lying a little” if he claimed to have confidence in the car, he said on record. The bitter end result: over ten minutes behind winner Oliver Solberg.
Neuville has won the “Monte” twice in the past (2020 and 2024), but this year he seemed to be just a passenger in his own Hyundai i20 N. The results after 17 special stages:
Monte bites againWRC RallyeMonteCarlo pic.twitter.com/bD2J6GTRzq
— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) January 23, 2026
– Shakedown: Drive shaft and suspension failure
– SS 9: Crashed into a ditch (three minutes lost)
– SS 12: Spin in snow chaos
– SS 15: Flat tire (another 2.5 minutes lost)
But the real problem wasn’t the mistakes, it was the lack of feeling. “It was the most difficult Monte I’ve ever driven,” Neuville sums up, visibly fed up. “I had no control and lost it many times. In the end, the only goal was to keep all the wheels on the car.”
When the grip changes, things get critical
It is well known that the Hyundai i20 N is not an asphalt car and tends to become a diva as soon as grip conditions change.
The team tried to optimize the front end over the winter to make the car more predictable—but not enough, as the “Monte” mercilessly demonstrated. The difference to Toyota was particularly noticeable when cutting corners. While the Toyota GR Yaris remains stable when cutting the inside of a corner, the Hyundai responds to such maneuvers with a nervous rear end.
Teammate Adrien Fourmaux, who still managed to secure two stage wins, sums it up: “As soon as it gets bumpy or the grip changes constantly, we have massive problems.”
Hope on gravel
Meanwhile, sporting director Andrew Wheatley is trying to smooth the waters, blaming the debacle on extreme conditions that had not been tested. The 2026 Monte Carlo Rally was considered the most difficult in terms of weather in more than a decade.
Neuville himself is hoping for a change in surface. In Sweden (snow) and at the later gravel events, the Hyundai felt much better recently.
But one thing is clear: if Hyundai wants to regain the title, the car must also perform well on asphalt.
Thierry Neuville is more than ten minutes behind the rally winner at the 2026 Monte Carlo Rally – what is Hyundai’s problem?
Monte Carlo doesn’t ease you inWRC RallyeMonteCarlo
pic.twitter.com/JNxN17My6z— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) January 22, 2026
The 2024 world champion experienced a disaster at the 2026 Monte Carlo Rally. While Toyota was in a league of its own at the season opener of the World Rally Championship (WRC), Thierry Neuville struggled to a disappointing fifth place. A result that raises more questions than it answers.
Even before the first meter of the Monte Carlo Rally, Thierry Neuville sounded unusually subdued. Anyone reading between the lines quickly realized that the champion had lost his “popometer.” He would be “lying a little” if he claimed to have confidence in the car, he admitted. The bitter end result: over ten minutes behind winner Oliver Solberg. Neuville has won the “Monte” twice in the past (2020 and 2024), but this year he seemed to be just a passenger in his own Hyundai i20 N. The results after 17 special stages:
Not the ‘who did it better?’ clip we had in mindWRC RallyeMonteCarlo pic.twitter.com/rBhut03P0U
— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) January 23, 2026
– Shakedown: Drive shaft and suspension failure
– SS 9: Crashed into a ditch (three minutes lost)
– SS 12: Spin in snow chaos
– SS 15: Flat tire (another 2.5 minutes lost)
But the real problem wasn’t the mistakes, it was the lack of feeling. “It was the most difficult Monte I’ve ever driven,” Neuville sums up, visibly fed up. “I had no control and lost it many times. In the end, the only goal was to keep all the wheels on the car.”
When the grip changes, it gets critical
It is well known that the Hyundai i20 N is not an asphalt car and tends to become a diva as soon as grip conditions change. The team tried to optimize the front end over the winter to make the car more predictable—but not enough, as the “Monte” mercilessly demonstrated. The difference to Toyota was particularly noticeable when cutting corners. While the Toyota GR Yaris remains stable when cutting the inside of a corner, the Hyundai responds to such maneuvers with a nervous rear end.
Teammate Adrien Fourmaux, who still managed to secure two stage wins, sums it up: “As soon as it gets bumpy or the grip changes constantly, we have massive problems.”
Hope on gravel
Meanwhile, sporting director Andrew Wheatley is trying to smooth the waters, blaming the debacle on extreme conditions that had not been tested. The 2026 Monte Carlo Rally was considered the most difficult in terms of weather in more than a decade.
Neuville himself is hoping for a change in surface. In Sweden (snow) and at the later gravel events, the Hyundai felt much better.
But one thing is clear: if Hyundai wants to regain the title, the car must also perform well on asphalt.
