The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that his team must learn from what happened at Rally Japan and from losing the manufacturer title admitting that it might be his mistake since last year.
Hyundai Motorsport had a 15-point advantage over Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT at the end of Central European Rally, but Rally Japan did not start well for them as Andreas Mikkelsen had a crash on Friday and Thierry Neuville suffered from turbo issues in Stage 4 resulting in dropping outside the top ten. However, the last one managed to climb to seventh place overall at the end of Saturday whereas Ott Tanak was in first place at the end of that day. The Estonian had a crash in Stage 17 resulting in retiring from Rally Japan and from the win meaning that he put Hyundai under pressure by Toyota as Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier were at the 1-2 after Tanak's retirement. The Toyota trio managed to outscore Hyundai by three points and became the 2024 WRC Manufacturer Champion for one more year which means that Hyundai lost the title although the chances were in favor them before the start of Rally Japan.
"For sure, we got very close to something, and when you miss that something by very little that is always a bit annoying and frustrating", Abiteboul said.
"But I feel we should give some space to Thierry and Martijn for what they have done and what they have achieved and truly deserved.
"Just as I feel it is deserved for Thierry, I feel it is also deserved that Toyota be where they are, which is on top.
"I still believe this is where they belong, and we saw when Seb pushed on the final stage, Thierry couldn’t match him.
"We should take that as an inspiration and demonstration that there is still one more step to take to get to their level, which I think we can take for next year.
“"t is difficult, it is clearly painful for every single team member – just like I’m sure it was painful for Ott and Martin Jarveoja.
"I’m going to be honest: I still struggle to measure to what extent the drivers know the risk level they are taking in these cars.
"It is not circuit racing where lap after lap you can say I need to go one tenth faster or one tenth slower, it is not like that.
"They have a green light to go and then they are alone.
"We are in a time of massive connectivity and an amount of data but there is none of that, and sometimes what is obvious to us looking at the split – it was obvious to me that he was way too quick.
"It is obvious to me but is it obvious to him?
"I don’t know.
"The message was clear.
"We said that we needed to be P3 and P5 on Sunday, not P1 or P2.
"There was no necessity to be on a crazy push like that, but the key question is: to what extent do they know they are on such a big push?
"He was starting last and I think there was phone coverage of the stage, but having said that, there is not split information in the car.
"I have to excuse myself for still lacking experience in knowing their ability to assess.
"This is something that was a big frustration last year and is something that I failed to introduce, to have some form of communication with drivers before a stage or after a stage about the level of risk that needs to be taken.
"I think this is something we need to do better – maybe Toyota is doing better, I don't know their protocol.
"I want to believe we are all going to learn and improve from the accident".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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