The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, says that their team will continue competing in World Rally Championship next year while he does not exclude the possibility of Hyundai racing in WEC and in WRC at the same time.
Some rumors suggest that Hyundai Motorsport has already developed a prototype LMDh car with which the Koreans are set to join WEC and to race at LeMans 24h within three years. The WRC future of Hyundai remains unknown, but Abiteboul hinted that the team will stay in World Rally Championship until the end of 2026 and their plans will depend on if another manufacturer joins the WRC premier class from 2027 as only Toyota and M-Sport Ford are their rival teams. An announcement will come in few weeks about Hyundai's plans for WEC and WRC while it must be mentioned that the Alzenau-based team is searching for a full-time driver for the third i20N as they found out that that their third-car policy did not pay off this season. Moreover, it must be mentioned that Thierry Neuville's and Ott Tanak's contracts are set to expire at the end of 2024 with the Belgian has not decided yet if he wants to continue competing in rallying nor to announce his retirement. On the other hand, Hyundai is currently in discussions with Tanak in order to renew their deal while Adrien Fourmaux is set to leave M-Sport Ford and to drive the i20N in 2025. Finally, Rally Finland might be Esapekka Lappi's last competition with the Hyundai's colors as Dani Sordo has been confirmed for Acropolis Rally and Andreas Mikkelsen will take part on the two final rallies of the season which are tarmac events.
"I haven’t confirmed any of that and that’s part of what may – or may not – be announced", Abiteboul answered when he was asked about Hyundai's plans for LeMans.
"There is a lot of speculation, we’ve been looking at different options.
"One thing that I can, because I want to, confirm is that you can count on us and on the staff of Hyundai Motorsport in WRC next year.
"That’s as far as I can go.
"For the rest, I’m sorry, but you need to wait a little bit.
"One thing we can do is several programs at the same time.
"Absolutely it doesn’t necessarily mean the end to WRC if a Le Mans program is announced.
"The answers will come in due course".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
Post a Comment