The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that his team has worked very hard to solve the reliability issues and to enhance the performance of the car for the rest of 2023 and expects to be more competitive.
Hyundai drivers have not won an event so far this season while Thierry Neuville was very close on in claiming his first victory of 2023 in Croatia until the time he went off the road on Saturday. At Rallye Monte Carlo, Esapekka Lappi, Neuville and Dani Sordo were struggling to find pace with their cars while the Spaniard suffered from hybrid issues on the final two days of this event. Apart from the hybrid unit issues and the difficult behavior of i20N during the stages (understeer, rear moving), the Belgian was not confident with the suspension set-up in two rallies while driveshaft, turbo and gearbox problems fill in the list which the mechanics must be based on to find solutions and to make the car more reliable.
"Sardinia is a very tough event, but it is also one where the team has a lot of good memories from the past ten years", Abiteboul said.
"Thierry and Dani both know how to win there and Esapekka has demonstrated good speed on similar surfaces in Mexico and Portugal this season.
"We have been pushing behind-the-scenes to ensure the reliability issues we faced in Portugal are not repeated in the future and also to enhance our performance as we know the i20 N Rally1 Hybrid has performed well but we are also aware that we are a bit behind compared to our competitors.
"We hope that these efforts will increase our competitiveness and allow us to finish the weekend in Sardinia with a good result".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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