Hyundai WRT

Junior teams would be nice but we all know....


Anyway, the way Suninen performed in his first few RC1 outings, I would think there is more potential than what he showed at M Sport in 20/21. Mikkelsen is kind of a known quantity, and everybody else is not on the level for an honest try.

It's most likely to be Suninen.

Rossel or Lindholm would be most interesting to see how they get on.

Gryazin would only be worth hiring if you had a lot of bodywork / shells that need to be used up.

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Originally Posted by mknight

Realistically there is only 3 candidates (alphabetically): Mikkelsen, Solberg, Suninen

Mikkelsen is best mid-term, he is good on fast rallies but also on most rallies that Sordo does if Sordo decides to retire (but he just did his best rally in Rally1 car).

Solberg obviously has best long term potential, but he just got fired from there ( likely by Hyundai top leadership which is still same, Moncet didn't have driver authority). Skoda and Solberg himself might also not be interested in jumping mid-season and based on previous experience it might be better to wait. Given how bad Katsuta, Evans and Loubet are doing there are likely seats available next year.

Suninen is best short term fix for just Estonia and Finland, is already working for Hyundai and also has some funds. But everything else speaks against him, his speed in Rally2 has not been great except Finland (how much is it the car?), neither has his reliability.

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You put Evans in same category as Loubet and Katsuta. You are a funny chap, Evans being the driver that won the last rally and was leading the championship is doing really bad isn’t he 🙄

Motorsport Week reported that Hyundai will start WEC Hypercar programme.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2023/...e-reports-say/

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Originally Posted by Kenneth

Motorsport Week reported that Hyundai will start WEC Hypercar programme.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2023/...e-reports-say/

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Ok, bye bye to Hyundai then

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Well it will be hard for Hyundai to get any title in WRC this year.
Neuville+car are not reliable enough for driver title and with nobody winning rallies for them manu is also a problem.

In Portugal they had 2nd and 3rd spot and two Toyotas retired, yet Toyota got more manu points from the rally anyway. When there are so few Rally1 cars just making a car restart on superrally is enough. (Yet some people did funny comments how Toyota dominance is not happening)

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Originally Posted by cali

Ok, bye bye to Hyundai then

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I understand the same as well. This is why Neuville made those comments in Twitter…

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Originally Posted by bomber21

I understand the same as well. This is why Neuville made those comments in Twitter…

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Which he subsequently clarified into saying that Hyundai does not plan to leave but that keeping current manus should be focus and not hypothetically bringing many in the future.

Abiteboul talked just before Portugal about driver plans for next 1-2 years.

I wouldn't be so quick, Hyundai has been in talks and shown interest in the LMH ruleset since the beginning. There were also frequent rumours about a DPi (IMSA, LMDh predecessor) entry. And although postponed, the future hydrogen class in the WEC was known to be of interest, or in other words a Hyundai entry from 2025 onwards was all but confirmed.

My most reliable sources/sites didn't mention Hyundai in any capacity for maybe more than a year.

It's also worth noting that LMDh is laughably cheap as manus basically run customer cars from specialized chassis manufacturers, so both together would still work.

Neuvilles latest comments and interviews now have proper context. Hyundai will probably stay 1-2 more years as they have still the Rally1 car and developing the Le Mans car will take a bit.

Maybe WRC will give up on Rally1 and have Rally2 as the top class. If you look at the timelines it fits. Let's say next year is the last year for Rally1 then in 2025 Toyota will have a Rally2 along with everyone else.