Hyundai does not rule out a fourth-car entry in 2025

The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that it is very likely to see four i20N Rally1 cars running in some events in 2025, but this decision depends on the logistics.

The Alzenau-based team confirmed Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux for this season whereas Toyota is running four cars whole year and brings a fifth car for Sebastien Ogier who has a partial campaign with the Japanese team for one more season. However, Hyundai is 55 points behind the first Toyota at the end of Rally Portugal and its season is not good so far as the i20N was far too slow in Islas Canarias giving the opportunity to Toyota to extend further its lead. Moreover, Hyundai faces reliability issues with the i20N as well as Tanak slipped behind Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera when a power steering issue hit him resulting in losing his lead in Portugal. Last but not least, Dani Sordo remains a good choice for Hyundai as the Spaniard remains loyal to his team and is still competing with the i20N Rally2 this year.

"There is still a chance for a fourth car", Abiteboul said.

"The Canary Islands round has been a shock to the system and when there is a shock to the system what you need to do is regroup and think and put on standby some of the action we had planned and in particular think about the best way to use the financial resources you have available.

"Running a fourth car needs more resources in terms of staff, financial resources and logistics. 

"After Canary Islands, was running a fourth car the best way to use resources? 

"Maybe, maybe not.

"In any case we are postponing that decision until we have a bit of a clearer idea because frankly if you enter four uncompetitive cars it doesn’t help your case.

"The first thing is to understand our competitiveness level and anything we can do in the short term to make it better. 

"Then if you have the confidence, you can play tactics with a fourth car.

"There is also the case that obviously, with more cars, you have more test days coming and therefore learn more about the Hankook tyres and we thought about that, but it is an expensive way to get access to more information about the tyres. 

"We like to think we can get to the same result in a different way".

Source: wrc.com

Photo Credits: Hyundai