The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that his team will make some adjustments to the car of Ott Tanak after his having suffered from engine mapping issues in Monte Carlo.
Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Andreas Mikkelsen reported problems with the engine mapping on Thursday at Rallye Monte Carlo which were related to the throttle, the mechanics managed to fix only Neuville's and Mikkelsen's cars as the Estonian was out of pace during last weekend due to the fact that the engine issues continued to exist until the end of the first WRC round. Tanak finished in fourth place overall and took one only stage win in Monte Carlo as he set an identical time with his teammate Neuville in SS11.
The Alzenau-based team has scheduled a three-day test for its drivers for the second WRC round and Tanak tested the i20N Rally1 in Sweden a day ago while Neuville's turn was today. It is expected that Esapekka Lappi will test the Hyundai car on Friday whereas M-Sport Ford has not started its preparations yet compared to Toyota which will offer to Elfyn Evans and to Kalle Rovanpera a drive with the GR Yaris Rally1 at Arctic Rally Finland this weekend.
"Of course, I am concerned by the engine issues because it means that we need to improve our validation process because this should not happen at this level of championship", Abiteboul said.
"We will have a debrief about that.
"We have the capability to revert to a previous software or mapping strategy that was sufficient for Thierry and Andreas but for some reason, it was not good enough for Ott.
"We need to see how we can improve that for him specifically because Thierry did not complain about that apart from the first day which was the same for everyone.
"We will make sure we will have something better for Ott in Sweden.
"His performance was still strong in his first rally back with us.
"I think it is a combination of his driving style and the way we have the anti-lag system strategy.
"I think we simply need to have a calibration that is specifically tailored for him."
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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