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Hyundai WRC car set for major mid-season update
Hyundai’s i20 Coupe WRC will be in for a major mid-season update as the Korean squad searches for a return to the strength it showed when the car debuted two years ago.
David Evans
Published: Mar 14, 2019, 12:52 PM
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While Thierry Neuville took the title fight to the final round last season, there’s a fear the Hyundai is slipping back in terms of pace against its world championship rivals.
Last week’s Rally Mexico – never an especially happy hunting ground for the Hyundai – was another lacklustre display, with Neuville’s distant fourth the best the firm could manage.
Dani Sordo was fighting for the lead when he retired with an electrical fault, while Andreas Mikkelsen hit a rock and dropped out with damaged suspension.
In an effort to reverse those fortunes, Hyundai is working towards the use of two homologation jokers in time for Rally Finland.
Despite a tough Rally Mexico, team principal Andrea Adamo remained upbeat. He told Motorsport,com's sister publication MN: “From the first moment that I was asked to take on this responsibility I knew I had been asked to manage something tough.
"I knew until July when we have our new homologation the job would be to take the best out of what we have.
"[At the season’s launch] In Birmingham I said I am not Jesus Christ and I’m not supposed to do miracles – and miracles are not needed, I can confirm that.
“What is needed a pragmatic approach, a proper job. We will do pre-event test, we have new parts to test and in mean time we work in there parallel channels: rally-by-rally and making the drivers as confident as possible in the pre-event test; the development for the July homologation and the development for next year’s car. That’s what I’m working on.”
Since Neuville’s Corsican win in 2017 – an event dominated by Kris Meeke in a Citroen before the C3 WRC retired with an oil-related issue – the i20 Coupe WRC has struggled for pace on pure asphalt rallies.
There will be some new parts for Corsica, but Adamo said the team’s approach was equally important.
“I’m in motorsport since 1989,” he said. “I’m not scared of this. I never come to a rally saying I’m going to lose.
"I go to a rally with my people fighting hard. I’m not worried about Corsica – if I start like this, then I am a loser.
"Sorry, my team is a winner. We go there and we do all what we can to win.
"If we go there and we think we are on top then we are stupid, but if we go there and think we are at the bottom then we are even more stupid.”
Hyundai does have the advantage of two of the WRC fastest asphalt drivers in recent history, with Sordo and Sebastien Loeb joining Thierry Neuville in Bastia in a fortnight’s time.
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