Thierry Neuville's hefty shunt in Central Europe appears to have contributed to his terrible run of technical problems in Japan
Photography by Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry
Thierry Neuville’s multitude of technical failures in Japan may be traced to his big accident at the Central European Rally.
Last year’s world champion hit the edge of a bridge that was protected by a hay bale head-on at the previous round, an impact that registered 16G.
He and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were taken to hospital for checks but given the all clear. The car, meanwhile, was a write-off.
Competing with a new chassis at Rally Japan, Neuville endured a dismal weekend – suffering a transmission problem on Thursday’s shakedown, a rear differential issue on Friday morning, a gearbox casing failure on Saturday that prompted an oil leak, and then electrical gremlins that stopped his wipers working (when the rain was coming down hard) on Sunday.
Neuville's gearbox casing leaking oil led to an early retirement after Saturday's first stage. He didn't even make the startline of Sunday's first test
He retired from the event on both Saturday and Sunday and flew home with zero points for the second event running.
Hyundai is investigating the cause of Neuville’s various problems, but the team’s WRC sporting director Andrew Wheatley suspects there’s a correlation between the CER accident and the problems in Japan.
“I can’t tell you a lot,” Wheatley told DirtFish, “but what we understand at the moment is that the gearbox casing, and I don’t know how much of the gearbox, was part of the accident that took place in Central European Rally. We don’t know because we haven’t fully assessed, but it would appear that there is some correlation between the two, so we need to fully understand the situation.
“It’s not a failure that’s been traditional, it’s something different. And the reality was, the big issue was they lost the oil. Because the shaft went back in [but] we can’t do 100km without oil.”
Wheatley explained that while Neuville was driving a new chassis, all of the components and parts that were undamaged were added to a brand-new shell.
Linked parts rules in the WRC sporting regulations meant Neuville had to carry over the same transmission from CER or face a heavy penalty
CER and Japan were ‘linked events’ in the WRC Sporting Regulations, meaning transmissions and differentials were sealed for all competitors from pre-event scrutineering at CER until the final parc fermé in Japan. Breaking that FIA-mandated seal or replacing the transmission would have led to an automatic five-minute penalty.
“Basically after CER, they took the car back on the [following] Monday and they took everything out of the car and put it into a new shell,” he said. “So basically they just switched everything over to a rolling shell and pushed it out the door and put it on the plane [because that’s all there was time to do].
“In the ideal world [the problems are all linked to that] because that’s very easy, that’s gone and out of the problem. If it’s not, then it requires further investigation, but… we’ll wait and see. I mean, there’s enough clever people working on the project to understand what the issue is.”
Wheatley also confirmed the wiper problem was different from the issue Ott Tänak experienced in Paraguay (where they kept peeling away from his windshield) and Adrien Fourmaux experienced on the non-championship Croatia Rally.
“Again, it’s under further investigation,” Wheatley said, “but it looks like an issue between the actual motor and the loom somewhere in the control connections, but it needs further investigation to understand where it is.
Neuville's vision was critically impaired on Sunday by faulty wipers – but the team is still trying to figure out the precise point of failure
“The wiper motor is a standard part. It’s exactly the same as a road car production item. So you are dealing with… you are putting road car production items to some fairly extreme stress. And it also sits very close to where the impact was on the previous accident.
“So we also need to understand whether that might have been an influence. I don’t think so in this case, because it’s insulated from the floor on the seat.
“If you put 12 volts to the [wiper] motor, it works, so it’s not a burnt-out motor. And it’s not a wiring loom with a cut in it. So somewhere between the two is where we are.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Hyundai, Rally Japan, Rally Japan 2025, Thierry Neuville, WRC 2025
Publish Date November 11, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/11/7zl1Ihoz-2025JAPAN_VT_080-780x520.jpg November 11, 2025
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