The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that he will take to Ott Tanak in order to understand better his driver's needs after what happened at Rally Japan a week ago.
The Estonian driver was leading Rally Japan until the end of Saturday whereas his teammate Thierry Neuville finished seventh on that day and Andreas Mikkelsen retired after his crash on Friday in order to get more prepared for Sunday points. However, Tanak crashed from the first place on the opening stage of Sunday and his retirement put Hyundai in a difficult position as they had only 15-point advantage over Toyota at the end of Central European Rally and were ahead of the Toyota duo in Japan. The message from Abiteboul was to be in P2 to P5 on SuperSunday in order to put an end to Toyota's domination on the manufacturer championship. After Tanak's retirement, Toyota was at 1-2 with Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier while Neuville and Mikkelsen had to fight against three Toyota drivers on Sunday. Eventually, Toyota managed to secure another consecutive manufacturer title since 2020 although the chances were in favor of Hyundai before the start of Rally Japan.
"We need to discuss about it, how to get better, how to make sure he avoids this, because there’s been quite a few of these this year", Abiteboul said.
"He will recognize it himself.
"And if he has the target that I believe he has for what’s coming next in his career, in particular next year, we need to understand how to deal better with this situation.
"And that’s a we.
"That’s not just him.
"That’s all together how can we, you know, lay out a plan that is clearer.
"I think the plan was clear, but I need to understand how I can help him, support him more.
"I feel that I have a responsibility in what happened to Ott today.
"Tonight I feel like I failed providing that platform to Ott, mainly about communication.
"I think each driver needs something which is a bit different. I don’t know what Ott wants or what he needs, which may be two different things, and that’s what we need to find out. I need to find the key of that riddle.
"I think Thierry, what he needed is confidence, stability, making sure, you know…
"Thierry is someone who’s very structured, very clear about what he needs, what he wants, and I think he wanted someone who puts also structure, clarity, transparency, pragmatism, and I think, you know, I’m not the rally expert he is, but I think I’m bringing that.
"And the fact that he sees that I’m developing a plan for the team and the organization, maybe it’s not changing that much the plan, the situation, but I think it’s giving him the confidence that there is a process.
"And that, I think, has been maybe not a huge game changer, but something that helped a little bit in Thierry, you know, sort of stepping up a bit, being able to build an approach for the rally, for the season, you know, not just one after another.
"We sort of develop a plan for each of the things. I think that helps him.
"So what will help Ott?
"What do I need to do to help Ott?
"I need to find, again, the answer to that question.
"I have a short winter to do that".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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