The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that his team is thinking of bringing four Rally1 cars next year and an announcement about its drivers will be made later this season, but he hints that Dani Sordo will continue with them.
The Alzenau-based announced a new programme for the young drivers, which is named "Hyundai Motorsport Driver development Programme (=HMDP), in which Teemu Suninen and Emil Lindholm were confirmed last weekend while it is expected that more drivers will be added to it. After Craig Breen's passing, Abiteboul made clear that the team was looking for new drivers to invest in while a DirtFish's source said that Kalle Rovanpera may exit Toyota at the end of 2023 and join Hyundai for 2024. However, Thierry Neuville is part of Hyundai family since the Koreans rejoined WRC back in 2014 as well as Dani Sordo while they are satisfied with Esapekka Lappi who stepped in to replace Ott Tanak this year. The Finn driver has finished in podium positions three times in a row and was fighting for the victory in three rallies (Sweden, Mexico, Sardinia).
"Absolutely that is a possibility and we will announce the plan for all our drivers including Dani in due course", Abiteboul said.
"That is very much a possibility, the plan is for one of them to drive a car.
"We are looking and even though no decision is made, one of the things that we would like to do is see if we can run a fourth car.
"It is a possibility but the problem is with the price of those cars and that is why I have been banging on about the regulations regarding reducing the cost for everyone.
"The cost involved in running a fourth car with the current technical regulation and the current sporting regulations, which means very long events and a lot of people, are crazy high.
"We are talking about the weekend format and making it more attractive and simple regulations to bring the costs down so more young drivers have chance to be part of a programme like this".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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