Hyundai WRT

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Originally Posted by trykmann

Yes, these were the latest ones and did not affect the championship standings.

Let's take a look at 2019 season then. The crashes in Chile and Turkey did not help at all with the competiton against Tänak.

When you are driving against champions like Ogier, then you just can't afford these kind of mistakes. Ogier made usually one mistake per season.

I like to see him in the championship and he is fast as the other best drivers. He just too often makes costly mistakes and looses valuable points.


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Yes, Neuville makes more mistakes than Ogier and Tanak, and that's why they're world champions. Point is: when is that Neuville was served the championship on a silver platter and blew these many great chances, such is the narrative? In 2018 and 2019 he performed a bit worse than each world champion and had a less reliable car on average. One can say 2017, even if the whole championship was sort of a comeback after the first 2 rounds.
After that we have 2020-2021-2022-2023 in which Hyundai was sub-par and the infinite amount of technical troubles prevented even champion Tanak to be a serious challenge for the title. (2020 manufacturer title only the gods know how Hyundai won it, with the silly 3 point scoring drivers rule).
I think Hyundai are aware of their level. I don't see why they would blame a driver for mistakes he did 6 years ago, when it's 4 seasons the car is slower and less reliable than Toyota.

It's a bit of a pointless discussion as this forum gas it's allegiances and they are certainly not with Neuville. But I must say<, I always wonder how useless legends of the sport like Munari, Biasion, Alen, McRea, Solberg, Grönholm or even Latvala were. After all, all of them "just" won between 10 and 30 rallies but had fluctuating form or were to accident prone.

somewhat related but not quite: do some people think that either tanak or rovanpera would have been champion if they would have had a full season doing ogier as teammate?

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Originally Posted by denkimi

somewhat related but not quite: do some people think that either tanak or rovanpera would have been champion if they would have had a full season doing ogier as teammate?

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Rovanperä yes.

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Originally Posted by denkimi

somewhat related but not quite: do some people think that either tanak or rovanpera would have been champion if they would have had a full season doing ogier as teammate?

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Both yes

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Originally Posted by denkimi

somewhat related but not quite: do some people think that either tanak or rovanpera would have been champion if they would have had a full season doing ogier as teammate?

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Difficult to say, but they are the two in recent history who could potentially beat Ogier over a season in the same car.
I don’t underestimate just how good Ogier is though, both Tanak & Rovanpera have the speed, but Ogier’s consistency is remarkable and very difficult to match.
I would say possible, but very difficult for both.

ogier has done 3 rallies this year and only a penalty+flat tyre in croatia have stopped him from winning them all 3. ogier and tanak were in the same team in 2017 and ogier had 42 points more at the end of the year.

i can understand some people are really big fans but let's be factual. if ogier was in the toyota in 2019 tanak would almost certain not have been champion. and if ogier did a full season in 2022, rovanpera would most likely also not have been champion.

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Originally Posted by denkimi

somewhat related but not quite: do some people think that either tanak or rovanpera would have been champion if they would have had a full season doing ogier as teammate?

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No, I believe Ogier would be the champ.

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Originally Posted by denkimi

ogier has done 3 rallies this year and only a penalty+flat tyre in croatia have stopped him from winning them all 3. ogier and tanak were in the same team in 2017 and ogier had 42 points more at the end of the year.

i can understand some people are really big fans but let's be factual. if ogier was in the toyota in 2019 tanak would almost certain not have been champion. and if ogier did a full season in 2022, rovanpera would most likely also not have been champion.

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how can you be factual about things which didn’t happen?

Was, would, almost, likely - but didn’t happen

Ogier has had significant starting position advantage + Monte in his backyard. A lot of people seem to forget or miscalculate about this.

For me it is very interesting to see if he can win Championship this year with mathematics alone which means calculating in which events to start and which to pass to gain again significant advantage in starting positions. Also a lot of team/drivers help him with amateurish mistakes as well which ofc tells a lot about Ogier's greatness but it has many nuances for this season so you can't make any assumptions about speed just looking at the standings.

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

Hyundai should bring in Mikkelsen after they suddenly stopped answering his texts on the verge of a deal and hired Breen. He deserves another shot after doing all he can to prove himself in Rally2 cars.

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https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/hyund...ive-mikkelsen/

The interesting part is that he says it's new management.
Sure there was change with Moncet and Abiteboul, but last year it Moncet claim that he did not decide what drivers are getting signed.
Does this mean there also was change on other positions?

This would also imply that Solberg has better chance than expected. He is the most promising of the "non-experienced" (Mikkelsen, Suninen and Greensmith are experienced), but even if given the opportunity would it be good idea for him to jump mid-season when he has a good shot at title? Given previous experience I would say no, now with Skoda he finally seems to be developing after 2 years of stagnation. If he gets title or closely loses it at the end of the year I doubt he will have issues finding employment.

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Originally Posted by mknight

The interesting part is that he says it's new management.
Sure there was change with Moncet and Abiteboul, but last year it Moncet claim that he did not decide what drivers are getting signed.
Does this mean there also was change on other positions?

This would also imply that Solberg has better chance than expected. He is the most promising of the "non-experienced" (Mikkelsen, Suninen and Greensmith are experienced), but even if given the opportunity would it be good idea for him to jump mid-season when he has a good shot at title? Given previous experience I would say no, now with Skoda he finally seems to be developing after 2 years of stagnation. If he gets title or closely loses it at the end of the year I doubt he will have issues finding employment.

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I’m not sure I agree with your comments re Solberg. I wouldn’t be surprised if jumped at the chance to drive the Hyundai again. Given the fact he threw away the win in Portugal to perform crowd pleasing donuts gives me the impression it is about more than the wrc2 title he cares about, and from comments Tanak made about Hyundai not supporting Oliver enough last season he might see it as a better opportunity with different management second time around.

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/sunin...hyundai-drive/

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/sunin...hyundai-drive/

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Good choice for them and I'd be happy for Suninen, I still think he has quite a lot potential.

At this point I don't expect big changes in Suninens performance, he has been around for quite long to show what his level is. So does not fit the "developing over experience" narrative that Hyundai boss has been pushing.

But certainly he is one of the two drivers that can step in right now and hope for results around podium on selected rallies.

If Suninen doesn't get a chance now, I can't see it happening at all..

It would also be disrespectful to him(by Hyundai) for ,,wasting'' 2-3 years for only doing wrc2 rallies(basically only as much as required).. Hopefully gets to show his abilities in Estonia/Finland, although it would be difficult with so few experience in rally1 car..

I can’t make a case for anyone else over him really. For me he deserves the chance as much as anyone.

Well, Portugal has proven Sordo is still their best shot for all rallies except Estonia-Finland (over all the other names).
Considering his experience with the car and in Rally1 + his reliability + good road position.

So at the moment, the best they can find is someone for a small stint in Estonia-Finland and then, depending on the results, in Chile and Japan perhaps.
Suninen sounds the best shot for Estonia-Finland for multiple reasons (has done both rallies last 2 years, some testing with the car, back-to-back winner in Finland in RC2, close from Mikkelsen in Estonia before technical issue in last stage). And in case of, he knows Chile and Japan.
Only thing is I would have expected Hyundai to give this driver a stint in Safari (a rally where keeping safe can bring a result) before Estonia-Finland ‘cause it will be complicated to perform in fast gravel rallies with so little experience; we could expect a national rally at least (Itaralli mid-June in Finnish championship?)

And as evoked before, probably Paddon deserves the spot to replace him in Rally2 in Estonia-Finland.

Honestly, I’m much more skeptical about Mikkelsen for a first small stint Estonia-Finland (would have agreed for a mid-season but here, sounds more complicated).

Give it to Suninen for at least Estonia-Finland and if he doesn’t perform then think of an alternative plan for next year. Too soon for Solberg to go back, we don’t want to make the same mistake again.

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/demai...ical-director/

good news!

„He will work alongside fellow engineering giant of the sport Christian Loriaux.

DirtFish understands Demaison will take the title of technical director, while Loriaux works as WRC technical manager„

What a joke! For what they keep Loriaux? He designed the car which is undriveable. Drivers complain about car behaviour and lack of confidence and they still what to keep him? It’s really interesting…

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Originally Posted by Gonek

„He will work alongside fellow engineering giant of the sport Christian Loriaux.

DirtFish understands Demaison will take the title of technical director, while Loriaux works as WRC technical manager„

What a joke! For what they keep Loriaux? He designed the car which is undriveable. Drivers complain about car behaviour and lack of confidence and they still what to keep him? It’s really interesting…

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Did Loriaux design the car? I thought he was brought in late in the process to FIX the original car.... He was contracted from M-Sport as a fixer, not the main designer....

It is a question if he is a fixer or destroyer of initial car? This we will never know because initial car was never competing on the stages. Maybe it was better than what they have now? Who knows? He had a lot if time to improve the current car and we don‘t see any improvements. I don’t remeber if Neuville was telling officially that he had no confidence with the previous generation car. That one has been developed without Loriaux and was quite competitive wining two constructor‘s championships. Since Loriaux is there, Hyunday is nowhere…

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Originally Posted by Gonek

It is a question if he is a fixer or destroyer of initial car? This we will never know because initial car was never competing on the stages. Maybe it was better than what they have now? Who knows? He had a lot if time to improve the current car and we don‘t see any improvements. I don’t remeber if Neuville was telling officially that he had no confidence with the previous generation car. That one has been developed without Loriaux and was quite competitive wining two constructor‘s championships. Since Loriaux is there, Hyunday is nowhere…

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At least on testing videos it looked horrible. Also, a person like Loriaux doesn't decide alone which car they send to homologation. They could have sent the original one if it was better than the second edition.

I think this needs to be looked at in context of Hyundai going to WEC, they will need a bigger structure for that.

On the drivers side they know Suninen quite well, so if they rate him he should be am easy choice no? Last year they were ready to get Mikkelsen and jumped on Lappi when he was available. So maybe Suninen is not their first choice.

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

I think this needs to be looked at in context of Hyundai going to WEC, they will need a bigger structure for that.

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Absolutely, I thought the same thing and look at the words of Cyril, he hinted about a more complete structure

So, who is it?

https://twitter.com/MiikaWuorela/sta...22010198335488

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

So, who is it?

https://twitter.com/MiikaWuorela/sta...22010198335488

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If I had to guess I’d say Suninen, wish it would be Paddon tbh, but he was just now testing in Sardegna with the i20N Rally 2 car, guess we’ll find out over the weekend.

https://www.rallit.fi/joko-sopimus-o...-salatestissa/

Well Suninen was testing the car today.

And dirtfish confirms it:https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/sunin...ai-rally1-car/

Quite special that Andreas Mikkelsen is named "Driver-Hyundai Motorsport" at DF's highlights from Mythical Rally?
Should be "Ex-hyundai", or more rightly "Škoda".https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...23dcc60337.jpg

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Yes, very important

DF usually know things in advance but usually wait for official announcement but have 5 stories ready. did they slip up? There was no Hyundai driver at Mythical Cars Rally afaik so it's unlikely to be a "copy paste" error with the graphic.

This could be what Hyundai is interested in: https://www.motorsport.com/lemans/ne...2030/10474311/

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

This could be what Hyundai is interested in: https://www.motorsport.com/lemans/ne...2030/10474311/

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This exactly what Hyundai is interested in, even when they planned to introduce a H class in 2025 there was lots of talk in the sportscar community about Hyundai.

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

This could be what Hyundai is interested in: https://www.motorsport.com/lemans/ne...2030/10474311/

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Now this might be something interesting! Especially if you feedback to that tweet from Thierry Neuville:

https://www.rallyssimo.it/wp-content...le-fia-wrc.png

If you check this link, there are currently 4 manufacturers in the world which are working on Hydrogen cars. And at least 2 of those 4 are currently participating in WRC ...
https://www.fastechus.com/blog/vehic...-cell-vehicles

So if WRC will not go Hydrogen in the future, Hyundai (and possible Toyota) might jump to this all Hydrogen WEC class

If you want to use/ demonstrate new technology in motorsport, then the WEC is the series to go to......

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

If you want to use/ demonstrate new technology in motorsport, then the WEC is the series to go to......

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Always has been...