Hyundai WRT

That sounds more like an admission of fault rather than excuses from Abiteboul.

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Originally Posted by WRCStan

That sounds more like an admission of fault rather than excuses from Abiteboul.

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it's just they can't do everything at the same time. we all know that the project was late, and regaining time is not easy, especially with "low" funding and limited testing.

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

Abiteboul explains why it went wrong for them in 2025:

"We spent a winter finally working on this new car. And we did not work on three new elements that appeared: the end of the hybrid, the change of tyres and the change of fuel. All our efforts, our focus, our test days and our jokers went into this new car and not into these three elements, which changed things quite a lot and penalised us in the end. We arrived in Monte Carlo not at all prepared for how the Hankooks work on tarmac because we had been working on other things”

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Interesting choice of priorities They must have thought the old car was really bad in the areas they worked on to ignore the those three big changes for 2025 season.

Paddon decided, just send it ... ;)

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/the-e...ns-wrc-career/

More from Abiteboul interview to Belgian media after Saudi Arabia:

"We also know that Toyota redesigned the gearbox ratios. Because of the hybrid system, it's something we couldn't have done because all our spare parts had already been used up. There were also internal mistakes, design flaws in the car. But ultimately, it's primarily a lesson in risk analysis and what we really need to do. And I think we all need to draw some conclusions from this. Next year, the challenge is not to get sidetracked again. We're not that far off, we've seen it several times, we could have won.

Above all, we need to solidify our reliability. Often, we had the pace, but not the reliability. Again this weekend, we came very close. We need to solidify our understanding of the Hankook tires. And then, we have some technical issues that we absolutely must focus on without getting sidetracked. This also involves internal reorganizations, with some people being a bit more involved, focused. We've diversified our activities, and that's had an impact. Now, we need people who are absolutely focused on the few changes that need to be made."

hyundai is bringing back the petrol i30N just one year after they "axed" the model...
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/n...-powered-i30-n

Sordo 5 rallies

Spain, Portugal, Greece, Paraguay and Italy

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Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira

Sordo 5 rallies

Spain, Portugal, Greece, Paraguay and Italy

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Am I imagining it, or was Sordo considered a tarmac-oriented driver back in his prime?

I think 2026 will be more focused on building a new car for 2027. I also think that Sordo has in some way similar advantage in Hyundai as Ogier have in Toyota. Have some say what he will contest (not exactly, but have some influence).

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Originally Posted by deephouse

I think 2026 will be more focused on building a new car for 2027. I also think that Sordo has in some way similar advantage in Hyundai as Ogier have in Toyota. Have some say what he will contest (not exactly, but have some influence).

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Do you think that Hyundai will be building a new car for 2027?