The team principal and the CEO of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, reveals that his team may change its strategy for the third car ahead of the new year, as it has not paid off in some occasions this season, while he takes the responsibility for Esapekka Lappi's lack of performance in Latvia.
The Alzenau-based team is running with many part-time drivers sharing the third car since 2014 when Hyundai rejoined World Rally Championship. Hyundai Motorsport announced earlier this year that Dani Sordo will take part in Portugal and in Sardinia while Esapekka Lappi will take over the third i20N on the fast loose surfaces and in Kenya. In addition to these, Mikkelsen agreed to support his team on the tarmac rounds and did his first gravel outing with the i20N in Poland. Although this policy had paid off in terms of results when Craig Breen, Dani Sordo and Sebastien Loeb stepped in in some rallies as the third driver, this strategy has not been thrived during this season. The most distinguishing examples are the sixth place of Andreas Mikkelsen in Monte Carlo and the lack of pace of EP in Latvia two weeks ago. In the first occasion, Hyundai chose Mikkelsen to compete in one of the most demanding rallies of the season with the Norwegian having not driven a Rally1 car before whereas in the second one Lappi got behind the wheel of the i20N in Latvia since his last outing in Kenya last March. However, Toyota has adopted this system since 2022 when Sebastien Ogier decided to have a limited programme with them while the Frenchman and Kalle Rovanpera are delivering wins to their team this season despite the fact that both of them have part-time campaigns. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that the Koreans do not exclude the possibility of investing in young drivers in 2025, such as Oliver Solberg and Martins Sesks, to have full-season campaign.
"I think where we also have a responsibility in bringing EP, who has not driven for three months and a half since Kenya in this competitive landscape in WRC with the Rally1 car", Abiteboul said.
"I think it’s something that we are not doing anyone any favors.
"It’s a bit like bringing Andreas Mikkelsen Rally1 in Monte Carlo.
"I think that was not great and this one is not great either and I take responsibility for that.
"We were trying to content Lappi because it’s a rally that he wanted to do.
"We had done the preparation with the national rally in Lithuania one week ago before Rally Latvia.
"But there is really nothing that can bring you up to speed with those cars, what this sport is about.
"I’m thinking about indeed what needs to be done – I think we are not spot on.
"Probably I said that we were pretty good with the third-car plan.
"I think we are not spot on.
"There is something to do better for next year.
"Frankly, I think we are at a point in time where we must be open-minded.
"If we have the capacity to secure car one and car two fairly quickly and announce a plan in relation to that, then it gives us a bit of time to reflect, also look what’s going on.
"One thing I’d like to know is whether there will be a change to the regulations, a change to the points scoring system, so that we make sure to do the right decision for next year".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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