The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, reveals that his first priorities were to find a technical director for the team and to develop the car, but is now looking at young drivers to create a WRC talent pool.
After Craig Breen's death, the Alzenau-based team is still searching for a driver to replace the Irishman as Dani Sordo does not want to participate in all WRC rounds this year. Teemu Suninen has already tested the i20N Rally1 in Finland last month and is one of the potential candidates to drive in Estonia and Finland at the top level as he is currently competing with the i20N Rally2 in WRC2 class. Andreas Mikkelsen and Oliver Solberg are are rumored that they would return at Hyundai next year while Emil Lindholm could be an option for them as he is the WRC2 Champion of 2022.
"One thing that I can confirm is we have tested Teemu last week and he is already part of the family, so it is a natural thing to do and was always going to be the plan", Abiteboul said.
"There is more to announce when it comes to drivers.
"My first priority was the technical director and the next priority once we have plan about how we develop the car, will be how do we develop drivers and we will be announcing something in relation to that in June.
"We are looking at a few drivers but we need more than one anyway because if you look at what has happened to our team this year and what is also going to happen to our team, and if you look at the next 18-month cycle, we need to have number of drivers to tap into.
"I don’t want to say too much at this time.
"My mission is not to look at a gap filling exercise, I’m looking at this as a more strategic platform to make sure that Hyundai always has multiple choices and options among some of the best young drivers out there".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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