The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, reveals that his team is planning to replace the current i20N Rally1 car with an another one in 2025 which will be contained major upgrades.
Hyundai Motorsport is working hard on becoming a Manufacturer Champion again in World Rally Championship and has done many huge steps by developing further the car and bringing back Ott Tanak to the team who is one of the title contenders as his teammate Thierry Neuville. To maximize this effort, Cyril Abiteboul announced three drivers to share the third i20N in 2024, therefore Esapekka Lappi, Dani Sordo and Andreas Mikkelsen will try to support their teammates and to bring some valuable points to the Alzenau-based team for the manufacturer championship. However, it was hinted that the Koreans would field a fourth i20N Rally1 this year, but there are no details about it yet. The most important thing is that Rally2 plus cars may replace the current Rally1 cars from 2025 onwards due to the high costs and due to the fact that there are more teams in WRC2 class, but the WRC teams and FIA will discuss it further next month as the World Motor Council will be held on February 28.
"It’s a strong development plan of the current car, within the context of the regulation", Abiteboul said.
"It’s an i20, it’s a development of the i20 – that’s what we want to do.
"That’s what we planned for.
"That’s what we have budgeted for.
"The business case has been developed and approved by HQ.
"It’s true that what’s going on with the uncertainty in regulations right now… uncertainty is never good and clearly uncertainty is putting us in a bit of a delicate situation with the plan.
"I can only tell you again, it’s a development, a very strong development of the current car and there’s nothing more that I can say at this point.
"Right now we are waiting to hear back from the FIA about what is it that 2025 and 2026 are looking like".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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