Hyundai tries radical setup changes to find more speed

For the second World Rally Championship event in a row, Hyundai has struggled for outright pace in its battle against Toyota.

Driver Thierry Neuville admitted he was running out of set up options to try as Hyundai explored radical changes to find answers to its lack of grip and speed at Rally Sweden.

The Korean marque had hoped to take the fight to Toyota in Sweden after a difficult season opener on asphalt in Monte Carlo, difficulties the team had been anticipating last month. This challenge is different.

Update: Neuville has since been stripped of his stage win in stage 15 after stewards imposed a one-minute penalty to be added to Hyundai driver’s time for not having his crash helmet correctly fastened during the stage. The driver was also handed a €1500 fine.

Now in Sweden, after 15 snowy stages, Toyota has again dominated with Elfyn Evans heading a 1-2-3-4 for the Japanese brand while Hyundai has struggled to extract pace out of its i20 N Rally1 car. All three of its drivers have reported a lack of traction on the snow and ice covered roads.

Heading into the final day, Esapekka Lappi is the best placed Hyundai in fourth, 1m09.5s from the lead with Adrien Fourmaux 8.2s further back, Thierry Neuville ended Saturday 2m10.0s shy, although the 2024 world champion lost a significant chunk of that deficit to a mistake in Friday’s stage three that required him to stop to clear his windscreen.

Radical setup changes

Esapekka Lappi, Enni Malkonen, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

In order to find answers to its lack of pace, drivers have rolled through a myriad of unusual set up changes through Saturday’s stages that resulted in improvements across its cars.

Neuville ended the day by winning stage 15 by 1.1s from Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta before opening up on the extent of Hyundai’s search to unlock speed from its cars.

“I have [gone radical with the changes],” said Neuville when asked if he had tried some radical set up changes. 

“I was driving this afternoon partially without the rear roll bar and we tried without the front [roll bar]. I tried a lot of rake, less rake and different preloads. I did a lot. It was always tight to get to the start of the stage [on time] each time.”

When asked if he was running out of changes to try, he added: “Yeah definitely. I had a bit of pressure today as I promised my wife to make one fastest time, as I forgot the flowers [for Valentine’s Day]. She told me I needed to set a fastest time, I was trying.”

Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

Likewise, team-mate Adrien Fourmaux tried an experimental damper set up change that made the ride pretty hard going for him and co-driver Alex Coria inside the car. The change did yield more grip that has left the Frenchman with hope ahead of Sunday’s final three stages.

“I found this morning that something was not working on the dampers, so I decided and the team decided to compensate it with the spring and really open up the dampers, and it seems it was working much better this afternoon,” said Fourmaux.

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

“It is quite positive and encouraging for tomorrow, still it is going to be hard to fight against the Toyotas, but at least we are showing some pace with the three cars this afternoon,” said Fourmaux.

“It gave a lot more grip to the car but the car became more lazy. At the same time I lost some protection, but I just tightened my teeth and I went for it. It is a shame we have not found it earlier and we tried many things on the car like differential, springs and geometries and ride height and nothing was improving anything. It is the only big step that I found today. 

“I think we can sort it for the rest of the season. I hope tomorrow it will be ok and we can fight for it.”

We want to hear from you!

– The Autosport.com Team