The sporting director of Hyundai Motorsport, Andrew Wheatley, says that the team will consider who will drive in each event individually and avoided to answer if it is possible to see Hayden Paddon again this season.
Hyundai Motorsport returned back to its third-car policy for the 2026 WRC season and announced Hayden Paddon, Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi in order to support Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville on the championship. In fact, Paddon took part in all the tarmac events of the year, which were held in Croatia, Islas Canarias and Japan, whereas Lappi competed in Sweden, Kenya, Estonia and Finland. On the other hand, Sordo has done only two outings with the third i20N Rally1 in Portugal and Greece. However, the Alzenau-based team gave the chance to Paddon to take part in Paraguay despite the fact that their initial deal included his participation in the tarmac events of the season. Moreover, Lappi has been already confirmed for Rally Chile meaning that Hyundai has not decided yet for the final two rounds of the championship. So far, only Paddon managed to finish at the podium positions twice while Lappi's best result is a fourth place at Safari Rally Kenya. Finally, Sordo finished outside the top five as he was struggling to find pace with his i20N as it happened with Paddon at the tarmac events.
"Hayden has done a fantastic job here and this result shows the strength and depth we have within our third-car line-up", Wheatley said when he was asked if Hyundai will give to Hayden Paddon a fifth outing with the i20N Rally1 for Rally Italia Sardegna or Rally Saudi Arabia.
"From the beginning of the season, our approach has been to look at each event individually and nominate the driver we believe is best placed to deliver the strongest result for the team.
"We have three experienced drivers with different strengths, and we will continue to follow that approach for the remaining events".
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