Neuville vows to take more risks in WRC title run-in

The Belgian retired from last week’s Rally Germany when his i20 Coupe WRC suffered transmission and suspension damage on the first run through Saturday’s Arena Panzerplatte stage.

That retirement has dropped him back behind M-Sport Ford driver Ogier in the championship race – the Frenchman is back on top by 17 points with three rounds remaining.

But Neuville sure victory from two of the three remaining events in Spain, Australia and the UK would be enough to land him the crown.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said, “but I’m still positive and still optimistic. But what I need in the last three rallies is a more aggressive approach.

"I have finished second a couple of times in the championship and I don’t care. I want to win. For the coming events our approach will be much more aggressive, taking more risks and trying to catch back some points.”

Asked by Motorsport.com how that aggression might manifest itself, Neuville replied: “We have to take more risk. We have to win races. OK, when you take more risk, it can suddenly end. It will be a more fine line for us now.

“Until now we have focused on staying ahead of Ogier in rallies, it’s not about focusing on him now; it’s not about what Ogier does, it’s about winning.

"This could depend on the tyre choice, if the weather makes a chance to gamble, then maybe this is the option. For the driving we have a small margin now and that will be a bit smaller from here until the end of the season!”

Hyundai upgrades coming

Neuville added that it was vital for him to maintain his motivation – and for the team to find some performance evolutions before the end of the year.

“I like all three of the rounds left in the year,” Neuville said. “I have to continue to enjoy and keep the motivation high: this is the main thing – this [retirement] could influence the motivation a bit, but I won’t give up. I want to fight until the end of the year.

“We would like some evolution for the last events. I know we should get some improvements… hopefully we can improve on the aero and in the engine, hopefully we can make a step in the power in time for Spain or GB.”

Team principal Michel Nandan confirmed the team was working towards improvements to the i20's aerodynamics and engine in time for Spain.

“We already made an improvement on the engine in the reliability with a change to the exhaust manifold in Finland and now we’re looking at the injectors and combustion," Nandan told Motorsport.com.

"These are more performance aspects which will also help in the driveability of the car.”