Agreed. This is where Abiteboul is going to earn his money keeping both Neuville and Tanak happy.
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Agreed. This is where Abiteboul is going to earn his money keeping both Neuville and Tanak happy.
https://youtu.be/GMoepLuPFRY?feature=shared
This is new, I know the chances of it happening are 0 or close to 0 but I would love seeing him tackle a round of the WRC with the (plug-in) hybrid Rally1 car.
One crash at a test rally and we are back at manufactured civil war at Hyundai. That's just silly.
Some fans are really craving for drama, Tanak agreed with Hyundai in Sardegna to not drive too risky and people were acting like this is giving up position to Neuville or something.Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
So far, Abiteboul is managing that pairing quite well.
I’m just glad we still have Hyundai and as long as no one else enters (& even then), I hope they stay.Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
If i were Hyundai I would enter all my drivers in as many events as possible. You want them to have as much seat time as possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Backa
Of course but it's different topic. We are talking about who should be prioritized.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
Argument there is nothing to gain due to road position doesn't convince me that much. There is possibility of rain, hanging dust or some other circumstances that can lead to Neuville being more in fight than expected.
Anyway, Kalle's result in Poland can be sign that one more test or lack of it is not big deal.
If I were Hyundai I also would start as many cars as possible. But one car should always have a young driver, no matter what country he is from.
Every team that want's to win titels should start as many cars as possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
I know that it's already a known thing but will post it anyway as Ott opened up a little bit more. During the Rally Latvia mid day service, Ott was asked about discomfort in the car and how he feels driving it. Is it something that can be changed with car's set up or are there some fundamental changes needed? Ott said this: This isn't something that can be just easily changed but rather a solution needs to be thought out. Adjusting the car's set up won't help. If the conditions are a bit variable, the car becomes very sensitive, making it especially difficult to drive on unfamiliar roads. In such cases, it's challenging for the driver to attack each curve with confidence
Unfortunately for him there won’t the new rally1 car that was planned for 2025.Quote:
Originally Posted by flat_right
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/hyund...id-wec-rumors/
Will be until ‘27 but from ‘27 onwards…no guarantees…
Very unexpected performance from Lappi in Latvia.
He basically never lacked speed before, yes he crashes relatively often, but pace was almost never an issue.
Checking trough results I had to go all the way back to 2020 Estonia in Fiesta WRC for similar lack of pace. But that was after the COVID break with no testing or development at MSport. Some 2019 outings with C3 are probably more comparable.
Real pressurre on before Finland.
Wery surprised over Lappi's perfomance, or lack of it.
Hopes he do better in Finland, or his future in Hyundai can be unsecure.
Several said that the Hyundai has a small window there its perform and behave good, he didn't find that window, thats for sure.
Is it any upgrades for this car for 2025?
It's not good at tarmac, for most of the drivers, and too small window on gravel.
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Well, while Lappi did underperform, I am glad he found himself more comfortable in the car on Saturday, unfortunately by the time that happened he was opening the road for everyone, hopefully Finland should be better (crossing my fingers for a repeat of ‘22 without the incident before the end).
His lack of pace didnt actually matter so much for Lappi. He needed to drop behind Neuville anyway such was road sweeping disadvantage in Latvia.
Finland will be more important to prove himself.
Lappi's job was to be top 3 at least after Friday and preferably on Saturday, at minimum he should have been ahead of Evans on Saturday.
Only the total failure on Friday made them drop him to clean for Neuville.
No way they would drop him if he was in reach of some 12-10 teampoints.
Yeah. If he was TOP after Friday, which was absolutely necessary with his starting position, he wouldn't be dropped behind Neuville. His perfomance cost Hyundai lot of points.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Latvia road book
https://youtu.be/V7RjUwwzUxs?si=0F3HFh6pdqeFrSum
Hyundai WRC future to be clarified soon...
https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/h...ture/10638544/
How Hyundai plans to solve “peaky” WRC car
Planned 2025 upgrades to its World Rally Championship car are hoped to solve some of the i20 N Rally1’s problems
https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/h...-car/10643002/
Suninens manager comments current situation about his career and the development of i20 rally 2 car https://www.iltalehti.fi/ralli/a/d3c...3-e05c59a96216
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/hyund...h-wec-and-wrc/
Hopefully we’ll get to see them in 2027 & beyond.
Sordo for Acropolis. Quite surprising considering Mikkelsens performance in Poland compared with Sordos recent ones.
Could be a sign that Mikkelsen is not at Hyundai next year, cause if they were considering him surely they would want to try one more gravel to check if Poland was a one-off?
Alternatively it can be a sign that Hyundai want to play it very safe and be defensive in manu champ now that they got a lead.
Yes, thats a surprise.
Maybe Mikkelsen goes to M-sport?
He's a Redbull atlet?
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Looks very much like the end of the road for Mikkelsen and Hyundai, yeah. M-Sport will probably opt for Elfyn in case he becomes available,so Andreas is kinda up in the air. Doubtful RB and Ford foot the bill for 3 paid Pumas.
What if Mikkelsen will get a chance in Chile? Lappi crashed here last year..
It is possible. Sordo also has recent Acropolis experience and he has never been to Chile.
Mikkelsen was there in 2019 but it was probably his weakest rally that year.
In either case he has contract for two more rallies, but those were announced to be CER and Japan.
Maybe Lappi will go to CER, altought he crashed last year.. Mikkelsen was really terrible on Tarmac so far.. It is sad that the car just looks like this and no one can't drive itQuote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Lappi crashed when pushing (CER) and was as bad as Mikkelsen when taking it safe (Japan). So hard pick. He did well in Croatia but that was some time ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by CeskyOndra
Similarly Suninen in CER last year was basically same speed as Mikkelsen in Croatia this year.
In short, Hyundai really have a tarmac issue. For manu title is is critical to do something with it.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/lappi...y-be-his-last/
I'm aware his performances this year (besides Sweden) were sub-par, but Imho it would be a real shame to lose Lappi, a great character, always love to watch his stage end reviews, and a good human-being, I really hope this season won't be the last we'll be seeing of him in the WRC top category.
I agree with you about Lappi, I like him, but in the current WRC, there aren’t enough cars.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eli
Pajari, Sesks and Solberg are all knocking on the door and deserving of an opportunity in top cars.
Of course it would help if MSport were able to run a genuine 3 car team, rather than the 1 + Munster we currently have.
A) As I wrote on twitter I think people (DF) focus too much on that one comment from Abiteboul which was more about not letting drivers come to a rally with little practice (citing Lappi in Latvia and Mikkelsen in Monte). The idea to change to full time seat was said as a possible solution. But there are also other solutions.
Seeing that Hyundai won both their previous titles due to part time drivers and Toyota is basically only a threat this year due to part time drivers it would seem weird to go for different strategy just like that.
B) In recent years most of the times DirtFish "announces" rumors about someone moving somewhere long before the end of the season things turn out completely different. So I don't put much into the talk about Fourmaux to Hyundai.
C) With regards to Lappi he has now had quite a few full seasons in last years in all teams (Toyota, Citroen, MSport, Hyundai) and seems to do much better when he is part-time. Everytime he does full season half of it is a disaster. So if Hyundai would indeed go for full season 3rd car I agree that Lappi is not a good candidate. But I still don't believe they aim to do that.
Real shame to see them leave the vacuum, albeit they weren’t competitive in WRC2 this year but still, one less Rally2 car is never a good thing, wish the FIA would start getting on top of things, yes I’m aware the i20N has been discontinued in February this year: https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/whats...is-rally2-car/
Seems Hyundai put down the i20 next year? Not just a new modell?
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Slowly pulling the plug from the series and putting the plug into WEC hybrid machine
They did say they might run in both series but I then Citroën comes to mind with their WTCC & WRC programs back in 2014 and how that ended up…and WEC require (I’m assuming) more resources.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
WEC require more resources than WTCC but it's also provide better visibility for brands. It's not only about costs but also benefits.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eli
Toyota is able to have WRC and WEC programs, some manus have F1 and WEC programs. Hyundai definitely can keep both programs, for me it's more about what WRC can do with regulations to keep them.
The rumours are Hyundai in the WEC, and in IMSA in North America, badged as Genesis, run by a US team.....(who have recently lost the Cadillac WEC programme to Jota)
Let's first see if they win any wrc titles this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC