How Neuville 2.0 conquered new-look WRC to abolish his nearly-man mantra

The Hyundai star finally ended his long wait for the World Rally crown after a season that featured controversy and drama to the end. Here's how his three-step plan to success played out in a turbulent campaign

Six winners, a controversial new points system, the joint-closest winning margin, champions making uncharacteristic errors, a mid-season regulations ‘hokey cokey’, young guns coming to the fore and a title decider for the ages. That was the 2024 World Rally Championship in a nutshell.

But ultimately it was the year that transformed the WRC’s nearly man Thierry Neuville into a world champion, alongside co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe. The Belgian has strived for 17 years to achieve his childhood dream and that dream is now reality – he is the 20th WRC drivers’ champion.

In this article

Tom Howard

WRC

Sébastien Ogier

Thierry Neuville

Ott Tanak

Elfyn Evans

Kalle Rovanperä

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.