How Thierry Neuville made history in 2024

For Belgium, 2024 was a year of unforgettable sporting moments. Belga takes a closer look at five Belgian athletes who surpassed all expectations and made their mark on the global stage. Today, we focus on rally driver Thierry Neuville.

Thierry Neuville is a mainstay of the World Rally Championship (WRC). Since his debut in 2009, the 36-year-old has competed in more than 150 rallies and won 21. In the sport, Neuville was known as the perennial runner-up, having finished on the WRC podium in eight seasons without ever winning.

His entry into the sport was far from straightforward. While becoming a rally driver was Neuville's childhood dream, he grew up in a lower middle class family in the German-speaking part of the country; not the best starting point for entering the expensive sport of rallying.

Doors opened

After graduating from high school, he started working in a factory to finance his ambition. All his money went into his car, a yellow Opel Corsa. At one point, he only had 256 euros left in his bank account.

Neuville eventually entered a Ford talent race and won, opening the door to professional racing. He gradually worked his way up the ranks before being signed by Citroën in 2012 and finishing second in the 2013 WRC season.

Two years later, he joined Hyundai, the team he would stay with for the next 10 years. Four more second places and three third places followed.

Runner-up champion

The second places were particularly frustrating. He has finished as WRC runner-up more times than anyone else in history. Whenever he came close to winning the title, small mistakes cost him the championship.

In 2016, during a decisive rally in Portugal, Neuville ran out of fuel due to a miscalculation by his team, and he ended up stranded on the track. In the 2017 season, in two consecutive rallies, small impacts broke his car, leaving him without points and out of reach of first place. In the final rally of the 2018 season, a puncture ended his title bid.

Neuville finished second for the last time in 2019. In 2020, he dropped out of the top 3 before finishing third three times in a row. This led many to believe that he would never become world champion, as rivals such as Estonia's Ott Tänak and Sébastien Ogier always seemed to be one step ahead of him.

Experience triumphs

This finally changed in 2024. By then, Neuville was one of the most experienced rally drivers in the WRC, having competed in more than a dozen seasons. He put this experience to good use at the start of the season, winning the opening rally in Monte Carlo, a springboard for dominating the entire season.

With a 25-point lead over runner-up Tänak, the championship was Neuville's for the taking at the Rally of Japan, the final event of the season.

But on the first day of the rally, disaster seemed to strike once again. Engine problems dropped Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe back to 15th place by more than 7 minutes. An impressive comeback on the Saturday saw Neuville climb back up to sixth place, with Tänak in the lead. On Sunday, the Estonian crashed, forcing him to retire. Neuville had finally won his first WRC title.

"Last year was a year of relief for me," he said Neuville in a recent interview with Het Nieuwsblad. But he has no plans to retire any time soon. "I want to continue doing just as well. With less pressure on my shoulders."

^{© PHOTO SIPA USA}