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Ott Tanak says helping Hyundai win the World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title remains his priority despite provisionally reducing team-mate Thierry Neuville‘s drivers’ points lead at the Central European Rally.

Tanak headed into the WRC’s penultimate round 29 points adrift of Neuville, knowing his team-mate could claim a maiden world title if he outscored him by two points.

Neuville was on course to do that, having led the rally until stage 11, when two off-road excursions dropped the Belgian to fourth, while Tanak ended the day in second, 5.2s adrift of leader Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier.

Prior to Neuville’s mistake, Tanak had closed to within 0.8s of his team-mate after winning stage nine.

Tanak revealed at the midday service that his speed prompted messages reminding him of the risks at stake in regards to the manufacturers’ title battle from the Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul, who is keen to deliver the Korean marque’s first title since 2020.

However, under the new points system for this year, Tanak stands to take at least five points out of Neuville’s lead if he finishes the rally, which could ensure the title battle will go down to season finale in Japan next month.

The points margin between the drivers could fluctuate again on Sunday with 12 points on offer under the Super Sunday format.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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Despite the possible points swing, the 2019 world champion says the drivers’ title is not his main focus, and that protecting Hyundai’s 17-point lead over Toyota is the main objective.

“Tomorrow we still need to keep pushing as we have done so far, and it is important to score points tomorrow,” said Tanak.

“The manufacturers’ title is so open it is really my first priority. The drivers’ title is still up to Thierry and what he wants to do with that. The Toyotas are so fast at the moment I need to manage with them.”

While disappointed by the mistakes that cost him valuable championship points, Neuville says his plan for Sunday is to push for Super Sunday points to bolster his title hopes.

Neuville could still lift the title on Sunday although it is highly likely he will need Tanak to have a problem.

“There was a chance for a better result today but it could have been worse. We didn’t expect to be in the lead after the first day of a rally that we didn’t need to win, but the rhythm was there and the car was working well,” said Neuville.

“Today was more challenging and a small mistake in the recce [when making pacenotes] cost important seconds in the fight for victory. We lost a few positions but we are still in the race.

Thierry Neuville, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

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“I think we have to drive fast [on Sunday] and take the maximum points, but we definitely need to bring the car home.”

Wary of the team’s position in the manufacturers’ title battle, Abiteboul has set a target for Neuville on Sunday.

“If Thierry does it [wins the drivers’ title on Sunday], it would probably mean something bad would have to happen to Ott and that is not what I wish for right now,” said Abiteboul.

“I think the target for Thierry will be to get at least 30 points ahead of Seb [Ogier in the championship], and if he can do that we will be in a decent position to manage the drivers’ title in Japan.”

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The FIA has introduced a cost cap offset in Formula 1’s 2026 financial regulations, due to the Sauber team’s higher salaries in Switzerland.

Sauber, to become the works Audi team in 2026, has long argued its staff costs are a big disadvantage as it fights to become competitive due to the much higher wages and cost of living in Switzerland compared to its rival teams in the UK and Italy.

It therefore pushed for the new regulations to include an offset for teams operating in countries with higher salary levels than the UK or Italy.

According to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the average wage in Switzerland in 2022 was $80,000 compared to $54,000 in the UK, where most other teams are based. That means, since the introduction of the cost cap, the Hinwil-based team has dealt with significantly less headroom to spend resources on performance and car development.

The FIA has now agreed that Sauber’s situation is not fair and will work on a cost cap offset from 2026 based on OECD salary data, which has been incorporated in the latest version of the financial regulations. 

Speaking to Nikolas Tombazis, single-seater director for the FIA, he confirmed that Sauber’s situation led to a regulatory rethink for 2026.

“It is our responsibility to be fair,” Tombazis said at Austin’s US Grand Prix. “It became obvious to us that salaries in certain countries are much, much higher and cost of life is much higher in certain countries.

Nikolas Tombazis, Head of Single Seater Technical Matters, FIA

Photo by: Mark Sutton

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“I see it myself, I live in Geneva. Whenever I go to the supermarket I think about it. And we felt that a team based in a high labour cost country like Switzerland would end up having approximately 30% or even 40% fewer people working on the car, which we felt was fundamentally unfair.

“We’ve decided that this could either lead to us trying to take some protections from a regulatory point, or it would eventually mean that teams could not operate, and a team like Sauber would have to basically close and move to another country, which we don’t think is the right way for the world championship to operate.

“So, that’s why there’s an adjustment in the financial regulations for 2026 which will basically adjust the salaries that get considered in the cost cap by some factors that get determined by OECD data, data that’s available to the world. As we get data from teams, we know that this OECD data is very consistent with the salary differences that exist within Formula 1 context and amongst the engineers of teams. So it’s not just OECD data.”

For 2026, the F1 cost cap has been raised from $135m to $215m after including a whole raft of new items under the financial regulations.

Rather than a large net increase in the amount F1 teams will be spending, the new figure will now include several items that were previously exempted. The higher figure also takes into account inflation adjustments, as well as changes to the $USD exchange rate.

The additional $300,000 allowance for each sprint race is an item now included in the base figure, while the $1.8m allowance for any race over the ceiling of 21 has been raised to 24 Grand Prix per season.

Finally, teams can also no longer write off certain R&D costs made under the UK research and development expenditure credit scheme.

The FIA says the matter surrounding Red Bull’s front bib adjuster is now closed in its opinion, as it rules out a wider investigation.

Motor racing’s governing body has acted for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in adding seals to the Red Bull car to ensure that an adjustment device in the RB20 cockpit that can raise or lower the front bib cannot be used outside the regulations.

That came following suspicions from rival teams that Red Bull could have been altering its ride height under parc ferme conditions – which would be illegal.

However, having conducted a thorough examination of the Red Bull system over the Austin weekend, the FIA says it is satisfied that the measures it has in place mean there can be no rule breach.

And while the governing body admits that it is impossible to be sure that Red Bull never used the device illegally in the past, it does not think it practical to dig any deeper into the matter.

The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “I mean, honestly, can I say with complete certainty about whether there’s ever been anything irregular? No. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely.”

Nikolas Tombazis, Head of Single Seater Technical Matters, FIA

Photo by: Mark Sutton

While McLaren has called on the FIA to investigate further whether Red Bull did use the device in the past, Tombazis said that there was no realistic way to find answers as to what happened historically. And the federation sees no reason to launch any further action simply based on suspicion from competitors.

“To go and retroactively actually prove exactly what has happened before is difficult, and we don’t think we have the ability to go and investigate two years’ worth of situation,” he said.

“Generally, when we decide to escalate the matter, and to go to the stewards or tribunal or whatever, we want to have some reasonable indication – so not based on hearsay or just speculation.

“As the design is not illegal, we believe that the correct action is to say: ‘Well, okay, certain things need to happen in order to guarantee there’s no ongoing sort of concern.’ But we also have to also draw a line in time and say that there are certain things we can’t go into much more detail [with].”

Tombazis said it was not realistic to think that analysis of garage CCTV images that the FIA captures from each weekend would yield any evidence of the team altering the device.

“People are allowed to check things on the car, and it’s a matter of how easy that is,” he said.

“If you have to dismount the whole bodywork and do 50 things, then obviously it would be visible in the camera. But on something as simple and as quick as that, I don’t think you can realistically check that on cameras or virtual images or so on.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, talk in the garage as mechanics work on the car of Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

While some senior paddock figures have suggested that the FIA should formally speak to Red Bull staff, or seek potential whistleblowers, to be totally sure it was never used in the past, Tombazis does not see that as a route worth pursuing.

 “We need to always consider that we’re dealing with humans,” he said. “We’re dealing with humans changing conditions: with loyalties – old loyalties, and new loyalties. So, one has to be a bit careful about how you escalate that.

“We also don’t want to be fitting lie detectors on people and doing interrogations under bright lights, or something like that. That is not what we want to do here.

“I’ve obviously worked in the past in teams, quite a lot, and I’ve employed people from other teams. I think there’s sometimes a tendency to say, well, where I came from, we were doing XYZ.

“And sometimes one has to really interpret these comments very, very carefully. You cannot just base an escalation on a few comments like that.”

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