Thierry Neuville, a prominent contender in the World Rally Championship, faces a critical decision at Rally Chile: whether to revert to a potentially faulty drivetrain in a bid to salvage his performance. The Hyundai driver voiced his frustration after the opening stages, describing his i20 N as a "nightmare" due to a combination of setup issues and transmission problems.
Neuville, still holding a mathematical chance of securing the world title this year, had been advised by his team to replace the transmission following complications during Thursday's shakedown. However, this change appears to have backfired on the Chilean gravel stages, significantly hindering his pace.
Neuville's Struggles and Frustrations
"It is more about surviving. I feel like we are experimenting during the rallies and it doesn’t feel good," Neuville lamented after Stage 3, where he finished fifth, a significant 14.5 seconds behind leader Elfyn Evans. "I can only use the set up from the differential at the moment so it is what it is. It is a big struggle. It is a nightmare."
During the midday service, a visibly frustrated Neuville revealed the possibility of gambling on the drivetrain that had initially presented problems during the shakedown. "I’m frustrated. We think we have some issue with the transmission we used in shakedown so we switched to another for this morning, which obviously isn’t great at all," he explained.
He elaborated on the multifaceted challenges he was facing: "I was struggling like hell out there but in addition to that chassis-wise I cannot get any trust so we have a couple of issues we are carrying with us, so it was really tough out there."
A Risky Gamble
Neuville acknowledged the high stakes involved in potentially reverting to the original transmission. "There is not much we can do other than take the risk and go back to the other transmission and, if it fails, it fails. But at the moment the speed isn’t there and I don’t see the point to carry on with that performance so far. Let’s see, we might take some risk with changing the transmission back and we will cross our fingers."
The decision-making process seemed to be a point of contention for the driver. "Yesterday evening I was told I have to change and now I’m told if you want to go back we can go back so what should I say? It is an engineer’s thing. I can’t tell you what is wrong and I did what I was told."
Neuville concluded with a stark assessment of his current situation: "With that pace we will go nowhere so we need to find something, honestly it is tough."
Ogier's Unexpected Lack of Pace
Neuville wasn't the only championship contender grappling with car issues during the morning stages. Sebastien Ogier, an eight-time world champion, was also uncharacteristically struggling for speed.
Ogier lost 9.2 seconds in the opening stage and continued to cede time to the leading group, ultimately finishing the loop in fourth place, 13.9 seconds behind the leader. This lack of pace was particularly surprising, given Ogier's dominant performance at Rally Paraguay just two weeks prior.
Setup Misdirection for Ogier
Competing in his 200th WRC event, Ogier attributed his struggles to a rare miscalculation in the car's setup. "I hope and I think it [the lack of pace] is because we went a bit wrong with the set-up. I was really fighting the car a lot in the first stage and through the loop I made little adjustments but it was never really enough," Ogier explained.
He added, "In the last stage I was really pushing and driving on the limit of what I have but it was not as fast as Elfyn, so luckily there is a service now. After 200 starts you can still get it wrong on the set-up but it has not happened too often in my career. Often I am able to handle the car I’m driving but this morning something was missing."
Ogier indicated that significant changes were planned during the service break. "I would say quite many changes are planned [in service] but changes that we know work normally. What we tried this morning wasn’t right."
The Rally Chile event clearly presented unforeseen challenges for several top drivers, forcing them to make crucial decisions and adjustments in their pursuit of victory. The outcome of these decisions remains to be seen as the rally progresses.
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