Hyundai confident of challenging Toyota's WRC Safari Rally dominance

Defending World Rally Championship (WRC) champion Thierry Neuville’s return to the podium at Rally Sweden has reinforced Hyundai’s ability to take the fight to rival manufacturer Toyota, according to team boss Cyril Abiteboul.

After a challenging Rallye Monte-Carlo, Neuville emerged as the closest Hyundai challenger to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta at round two in Umeå. The Belgian finished just 11.9sec off victory, with team-mate Ott Tänak a further 4.9sec behind.

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Despite Hyundai trailing Toyota by 48 points in the manufacturers' championship after just two rounds, Abiteboul remains confident the tide can turn.

“Like in Monte-Carlo, it was tight all weekend in Sweden, but unfortunately not on the right end. Thierry was impressive after starting pretty slowly, but he built on his confidence and his pace to fight his way to the podium, which is definitely a sign of the strong things to come from him and his teammates," Abiteboul told WRC.com. 

He continued, “Overall, this result means that the championship is not starting in the right way for us, however, it is clear that we do not need big improvements to turn things around." 

Hyundai has yet to break Toyota’s stranglehold on the Safari Rally since the Kenyan classic returned to the WRC in 2021. 

With Neuville and Tänak showing strong form in Sweden, the team is eager to rewrite that narrative when the championship heads to the gruelling Kenyan terrain on Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 March in Nairobi and Naivasha areas. 

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Since its return to the global series, Toyota has won both the driver and manufacturer's Safari trophies. In 2021, Sebastian Ogier led a Toyota Gazoo top-two finish with Katsuta Takamoto coming home second. 

Kalle Rovanperä led Toyota to a clean sweep of the top four positions in 2022, with Evans and Takamoto second and third, respectively. The manufacturer doubled down with yet another sweep in 2023 with Ogier, Rovanperä, Evans, and Katsuta finishing in that order. 

Finish driver Rovanperä won the rally again in 2024 ahead of Takamoto as Toyota won yet another manufacturer award at the Safari. 

Hyundai's Tanak (2021) and Ford's Adrien Fourmaux (2024) are the only non-Toyota drivers to make the podium since Safari's return to the FIA WRC series in 2021.

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Additional reporting by WRC.com