What is going on with Suninen's and Lindholm's future at Hyundai?

Teemu Suninen and Emil Lindholm were expected to continue with Hyundai Motorsport in 2024, but an extension to their partnership seems unlikely.

More specically, the Finn duo became part of Hyundai's new programme, the "Hyundai Motorsport Driver development Programme" (HMDP), last June. The goal of this programme is to give the opportunity to the young drivers to develop their skills and to gain more experience. Lindholm left Toksport and Skoda Motorsport in the middle of this season and joined Hyundai in WRC2 class as the Alzenau-based team gave the chance to Suninen to take part in four rallies with the i20N Rally1. However, it is rumored that the 2022 WRC2 Champion will make his WRC debut with M-Sport Ford in 2024 as the Malcolm WIlson's team is looking to integrate young drivers to its roster for next season. On the other hand, Timo Jouhki, the manager of Suninen, revealed four months ago that his driver has already signed a seven-rally contract with Hyundai for next year, but eventually the team announced Andreas Mikkelsen, Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi to share the third i20N and to support Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville. In addition to that, Jouhki said recently that Suninen and Lappi would drive the third car and the rallies would have been decided until 15 December. Since this did not happen, Jouhki considers the deal between Suninen and Hyundai invalid. Finally, it must be mentioned that Suninen and Lindholm removed from their Instagram bio that that they are driving for Hyundai Motorsport which makes the things more complicated.

Photo Credits: Hyundai