Team's technical director tells DirtFish it is working to understand why i20 suffers more than rivals
Photography by Red Bull & Toyota
Words by Mark Paulson, Colin Clark & Luke Barry
Hyundai’s spate of punctures that derailed its podium chances on Rally Finland could be caused by the team itself, its technical director François-Xavier Demaison has admitted.
All three of Hyundai’s drivers suffered punctures on Saturday afternoon’s stages in Finland, with massive consequences on such a closely contested event. Thierry Neuville dropped from second to sixth and team-mate Adrien Fourmaux from third to seventh after their woes on the second pass of Västilä.
The third i20 of Ott Tänak, already out of contention after his difficult Friday and a five-minute penalty, suffered similarly on the very next stage. He and Fourmaux then both hit trouble on Sunday’s powerstage, ruining their chances of salvaging some points from the weekend. After his Hankook rubber delaminated, Tänak dragged his car home 10th overall for a solitary point. Fourmaux, meanwhile, retired.
Hyundai’s chief rival Toyota was unaffected, its quintet of cars sweeping to only the second 1-2-3-4-5 finish in World Rally Championship history. It wasn’t the first time this year that Hyundai had suffered more flats than the other two Rally1 teams.
“We had much more punctures than our competitors,” admitted Demaison when questioned by DirtFish. “I mean, some was caused by damage on the rim, which was not the fault of the tires.
“But some others, they are, at the moment, difficult to understand and we are planning to go testing just to try to understand better what we did wrong.
“There are many parameters, tires, between tire pressure, damper behavior and this sort of thing which can be problematic for the tires. So we’ll learn from that and come back better for the next rallies.”
Understandably upset, Neuville did not hold back with his stage-end comments, claiming it was the 13th or 14th puncture he’d suffered this season on the new-for-2025 Hankook control rubber. But Demaison was less inclined to criticize the tire manufacturer.
He said: “End-of-stage reactions are always sometimes a bit harsh. We’ll see. We have to understand why we had all these punctures. Some of them for sure, we haven’t found any reason yet. We have the same tires as everybody, and we have much more punctures, so we have to understand why.”
Asked if Hyundai would be able to fix the issue before the next round of the WRC, Rally Paraguay at the end of August, Demaison replied: “I told you, we are going testing, so we have to do what is needed if there is something which is really causing these issues.”
Neuville was furious when Saturday puncture cost him podium position
In previous years, it was Toyota that tended to suffer more punctures or tires coming off the wheel rim. The cause was traced, at least in part, to the design of its rims, allowing it to mitigate the problem. Neuville, however, fears that Hyundai may be unable to resolve its issue – at least in the short term.
“We had the upper hand on Toyota for a long time with the Pirellis, where we had less punctures and less problems,” said the reigning world champion. “And since this year, obviously, it’s a turnaround of the situation. We are carrying more problems than them.
“There are several factors we need to work on and look on, because not looking at it would be a mistake. However, I’m not sure we’re going to find a lot. And if we find something, are we allowed and able to change something?
“We are always limited by rules and regulations, and by manufacturing time as well. If we need new rims or whatever, they don’t just come out of the pocket like this, so I don’t see any big change for the upcoming two rounds.”
Hankook WRC spokesperson Steven Cho confirmed that the tire manufacturer would work with Hyundai to understand its problems – but there would be no change in tire specification ahead of the Rally Paraguay.
Logistics mean that tire specification for WRC's upcoming South American leg are already fixed
“We still have a lot of things to investigate together,” said Cho. “As you know, the reasons for these kind of things are very complicated. And for us, we’re just focusing on our side.
“We’re taking the feedback we get from the drivers and the teams and trying to see where we can make improvements and where the deficiencies are for the future, because you’ve got to keep developing.
“But I do know that we have some continuing conversations and tests coming up, so we’ll work together with them, as we do with everyone else, to try to improve.
“Definitely there are evolutions that are going to continue for Hankook. But for Paraguay, we try not to do them mid-season. You can imagine with the lead times required for the logistics, it’s too late to make any changes now.
“But I think it’s also better that we all go into events knowing what we’re going in with at the same time.”
Words:Mark Paulson
Tags: François-Xavier Demaison, Hankook, punctures, Rally Finland, Rally Finland 2025, Tires, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date August 5, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/3e4pLNZA-SI202508022149crop-780x520.jpg August 5, 2025
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