World champ Neuville determined to clinch elusive Safari Rally title

World champion Thierry Neuville is out to right all the wrongs that the third leg of the World Rally Championship (WRC), the Safari Rally, has done to him over the past four seasons in Naivasha.

The Hyundai speedster, currently basking on global glory, has had torrid outings in the Safari since his debut in the Kenyan circuit in 2021.

And the script has always been the same- take early lead in the championship before hell break lose in the remaining days.

But Neuville is quite determined to override this jinx in 2025, especially after being energised with the joy and celebrations of bagging his first ever world championship title.

"I'm here to win the Safari Rally. I'm also here to lead Hyundai to outperform Toyota on this landscape," Neuville told Standard Sports in Nairobi yesterday.

"After the four year struggle to master the Safari Rally terrain, I believe this is quite our year," he stated.

The prolific Belgium speed ace hinted his game plan in the Safari will be to try and stay out of trouble unlike before when he went for the jugular on the rough Naivasha terrains.

"Twice, I had issues with my dampers (shock absorbers) and twice I have had problems with my fuel pump, actually last year I was lying second before the unimaginable happened. Hopefully this year I stay away from the challenges.

"We already have a team set up to solve those critical issues before we start the Safari on Thursday and we believe this will be our year in Kenya," he stated.

Neuville admitted there is a lot of pressure to perform in the Safari owing to the fact that Toyota has started the season on a high- bagging 1-2 finishes in the opening leg in Monte Carlo in January and a similar repeat in Rally Sweden last month.

"There is pressure to overturn that in Naivasha and as a team (Hyundai) we need to be strong to achieve that,” he said.

"We also know that this Toyota has been very strong in the Safari in the past so we are working to solve our weak points in Kenya and hopefully it works for us.

"Also, Elfyn (Evans) has started the year on a strong note for Toyota and we need to outperform him in the Safari so we get closer to the championship gong. If we can do that in Naivasha then I'll really be very happy.”

And how does it feel to be a world champion, and also to race alongside a former World beater like Estonian Ott Tanak (2019)?

"Very pleasant to be on top of the world," Neuville said.

"I still enjoy it, we had amazing celebration to crown the title, but now we are quite focused on the new year which started immediately after the sweet victory, the break was very short”

He added: "I definitely wants to repeat the good run I had last year in the WRC and part of it is to win the Safari title which is missing in my cabinet. It's a great feeling to be a champion but now we have to focus to achieve even better this season. I think we will work even harder this year to make it happen as the rally is growing competitive by the day."

Neuville believes having an experience strong line up, including Tanak (Estonia) and Adrien Fourmaux (France), in Kenya will be a positive thing for Hyundai who are in search for the elusive Safari title. He said their purpose is not only to fight for individual accolades but also to boost their manufacturer's points.

"Toyota fielded five cars in Monte Carlo and four in Sweden, we also hope to get an additional vehicle so we boost our constructors’ points in the standings,” he said.

This year's WRC circuit is being run without the hybrid system that used to boost the vehicles and their performance in the gruelling contests, and Neuville says the move still puts everyone on same wavelength as none is having any undue advantage over the other.

On his sentiments on Fourmaux crossing over from M-Sport Ford to the Hyundai family, Neuville said: " It is spending that Adrien is with the Hyundai team, on a full time scale. His inclusion and experience has strengthened Hyundai this season.

"I was very much in favour for him to join us, especially after he made good progress last year in the series.”

He continued: "The competition in the series is quite high this year hence the experience of the past editions will be crucial this year.

"Adrien was a good move for us, he has brought lots of values to Hyundai which will be key in our search for glory not only in the Safari Rally, but to the entire series."