Hyundai Shell MOBIS World Rally Team driver Thierry Neuville has vowed to “give everything in every round” of this season’s World Rally Championship as he aims to clinch his first drivers title.
Neuville battled throughout 2018 with Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tänak before eventually finishing runner up for the third successive season to the Frenchman, but he wants to go one better this season and finish top of the drivers standings.
Speaking at the 2019 Autosport International show, Neuville said: “Last year hasn’t really changed our plans for this year. I made a few small mistakes but we will give everything in every round even if we aren’t consistent on every round.”
“On the Monte (Carlo Rallye) anything is possible so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been in the WRC for seven years so I’ve got a lot of confidence with the team as well as we’ve been together for six of the years. Last year we were close to getting our goal. We missed it but that’s a good sign because we have the car and the potential to be world champion and that’s our goal again this year.”
Neuville in 2018. Photo Credit: Jaanus Ree/RedBull Content Pool.
“We know at rallies like Finland we’ll be missing performance but we’ll keep going. We just need to aim for the best result and try and take maximum points benefiting from our rivals mistakes.”
The Belgian won a total of three rounds of the 2018 WRC and for this year will have a new team director as Andrea Adamo has taken over from Michel Nandan. Neuville commented on the change in personnel: “We pushed for some fresh air over the winter and we wanted an improvement in performance. The change has now happened with Adamo coming in. I’m really excited and convinced that he’ll work on things and make the changes that will make us competitive.”
