After what seems to have been a really short break from competition it’s time for the teams to begin the battle for this years championship titles. Although two world championship crews retired from the championship after the season closing round last year, we still have two champions from Toyota and Hyundai taking to the start ramp in Monte Carlo.
This year’s event sees four days of action which the event takes place over. This year sees the crew tackle 339km’s over seventeen stages, the first three of which will be on Thursday evening. Then on Friday there are six stages including a double run of a 28km stage. Saturday sees four stages with the last being a run around the Monaco race circuit. The last day sees four stages with the power stage being the longest of the day at 23km’s.
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Elfyn Evans
“After a short turnaround like always, I’m looking forward to the new season and to be hopefully fighting at the sharp end. I’m sure it’s going to be a competitive year and we will have to be at our best. There’s quite a lot of continuity in terms of the car and the tyres, and although we finished last season in a pretty good place, the team is always working to find improvements and that bit more performance that we as drivers are always asking for. Rallye Monte-Carlo is always a bit of an unknown in the sense that you cannot be sure beforehand what conditions you will face. It’s a huge challenge and it’s all about adapting as best as you can during the event.”
Sébastien Ogier
“It’s been nice to have some time to celebrate and appreciate what we achieved last year, but the focus is already on the new season when everyone starts again from zero. Even though I won’t be driving on every rally just as in the last few seasons, it’s still going to be quite an intense schedule. We will try to make the best of it together with this great team, which is always pushing hard to keep improving every year. As with every year, it’s exciting for me to start Rallye Monte-Carlo. It’s the rally that means the most to me and the one that made me dream, so it was a proud moment to win it for a 10th time last year. The target will be the same this time, but it never gets any easier.”
Oliver Solberg
“It’s a dream moment to be starting the new season as a Toyota Rally1 driver. I don’t have clear expectations in terms of results this year; I just want to do my job to the best of my ability and see how it goes. While I know the car quite well on gravel, I feel I still have some learning to do on asphalt. On this surface you feel a bigger difference from Rally2 to Rally1 machinery in terms of speed, but we’ve had some good testing and I have a very good feeling in the car. Rallye Monte-Carlo is an event that you just have to love, even if it’s really tricky and probably the most difficult rally of the year. It’s always a special experience and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“It’s always special to be starting a new season in Monte Carlo. The conditions are some of the trickiest we face during the season, so the feeling beforehand can be quite mixed: you’re looking forward to it, but at the same time you never know what will happen. We need to have good communication with our route note crews, who are giving us the latest information about the conditions, which can change very quickly. In our pre-event test, we had ice and snow, but it was melting, so we could also see how the car and tyres were working on wet asphalt, and I could feel some good progress. My target this year is to deliver more results and I’m ready to give my best.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s an exciting feeling to be starting my second season with the Rally1 car. Last year was pretty much all about learning, as in most of the rallies it was my first time there with this car. Still, in the second half of the year things were clearly going better and better, and now I’m feeling much more ready to be competitive. The car is pretty much the same as last year, as are the tyres, and I feel much more confident in understanding what it’s capable of. Rallye Monte-Carlo is maybe the most challenging event of the season with the chance for a big range of different conditions, but I hope to have a good feeling and enjoy it.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“Rallye Monte-Carlo is always a tough event to start the season with, but there’s always a lot of excitement around it. There are new challenges, a new opportunity for a good season, and the chance to win the rally that everybody wants to win. To have a good event you need to trust the car; it has to be easy to drive in all kinds of conditions, and if you trust that the car is predictable, it makes your life much easier. It’s tough to predict the conditions now, but we can say for sure that we will have a mix of drier and icier sections. We’ve won it twice, and we always say, “there’s never two without three”, so hopefully we can be right up there and stand on the top step at the end of the rally.”
Adrien Fourmaux
“I’m very excited to be returning to Rallye Monte-Carlo in the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car. It’s infamous because of the mixed conditions we always face, and the intensity of the event is unique. It marks the start of the season, so being back in the car is always something special and I’m really looking forward to it. I always try to make sure I have an easy car in Monte Carlo. It needs to be drivable in all the conditions we could face, which means snow, ice, rain and dry conditions. It’s been snowing a lot in the north Alps, so I think we will definitely have some snow, even if it’s just on the side of the roads. Our target is to win the rally – if there’s one to win, it’s this one.”
Photographer: Vincent Thuillier
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Hayden Paddon
“There’s definitely a mix of nerves and excitement ahead of Rallye Monte-Carlo, but I’m sure once we get into it those nerves will settle. It’s the most challenging event of the season, so it’s a daunting prospect, but I’m excited to drive a very cool car at such a historic event. We did a test at Hyundai Motorsport’s new base to get some proper mileage in the car so we can adapt and learn a bit more about the Hyundai i20 N Rally1. I don’t think anyone truly knows what to expect from the surface and weather conditions until we get there – that’s the unpredictability of Monte Carlo – so we have to prepare for every possibility. Our goal is for us to finish, and we’ll be keeping it clean to support Thierry and Adrien in their fight at the front.”
Photographer: Vincent Thuillier
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
M-Sport Ford WRT
Josh McErlean
“It’s great to be back for a second year with M-Sport, a lot has changed since this time last year when we were preparing for Monte. It’s fantastic to be back with the team and everyone involved. The off-season has been busy getting everything ready and properly prepared, and Monte-Carlo is always an exciting way to kick off the season with the conditions, tyre choices and the inevitable nerves! We feel much more prepared than this time last year and our focus is on getting the season off to a solid start.”
Jon Armstrong
“I’m really looking forward to Rally Monte Carlo and getting underway with the Puma Rally1 for the first time with M-Sport. There’s a lot to learn for us – Monte Carlo’s unique conditions, the changeable weather, and the tyre choices. The tyres are brand new for us too, so there’s been a good bit of learning with the Hankook package.
“Our pre-event testing was really valuable, as we experienced a wide range of conditions. It was a big pleasure to drive the Puma properly for the first time and I’m really enjoying the car. We had one day with mixed tarmac, mud and icy sections, and another day on full snow, so we were able to test all the tyres in almost every scenario – including finding out the hard way how little grip slicks have on ice!
“Overall, I’m enjoying the process and there’s plenty more to come as we build experience and kilometres behind the wheel. Shane and I are very grateful for the opportunity and excited to get started at Rallye Monte-Carlo. We’ll see where we are after the first day and a half, take it from there, and hopefully show progress over the rally. I’m really looking forward to the season ahead.”
Grégoire Munster
“Looking forward to being at the start of Rallye Monte-Carlo, it’s probably my favourite event on the WRC calendar. It’s also the rally where I took my first stage win with the Puma, so I have a lot of good memories here.
“We were quite competitive here in 2025, we were fourth overall on Friday, so I’m looking to show some similar pace this year. Obviously, our preparation will be a bit different from usual as we haven’t been able to go testing. But I go to Monte with no pressure, it’s just a good opportunity to get a good result and I want to enjoy it to the fullest. I don’t know when my next outing will be, so I just want to enjoy it and be as fast as possible.”
Summary
What an interesting rally in prospect then. We have a good mix of the usual suspects and some returning talent with Hayden and John returning. Then we have some new faces at the top as Jon and Shane make their debut at the top level of the rallying world. For them it will be a case of getting through the stages on the first runs and then seeing how they can improve in the second runs.
Who can challenge Seb and Vincent at the top to take victory this weekend. Well, Elfyn and Scott will fancy their chances this year and starting near the front of the field will certainly help their chances.
Of course, Thierry and Martijn will want to repeat their win like they had at the start of 2024 and get their challenge underway.
Photographer: Vincent Thuillier
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Their teammates Adrien and Alex though will fancy their chances and after taking a podium last year with third, perhaps they will be the leading Hyundai crew at the end?
It will be interesting to see how Josh and Eoin get on this year with the experience gained from 2025. They took seventh overall last year in the rally. What could they deliver for M-Sport this year? Also, a surprise returning crew are Greg and Louis who will be in a Puma. They took a stage win last year before retiring from the event. Can they get a decent result and then perhaps secure more drives throughout the season?
One last thing to mention is the manufacturer who are one of the most successful in the history of this championship as Lancia make their return with their Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale. Seven of these cars will make their way over the start ramp.
Leave a Reply