Hyundai WRT

[Hartusvuori]

He is missing his French class...

[AnttiL]

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/septe...0--12-12-.html

Nandan says they're considering four car teams for Wales and Australia. Catalunya wasn't considered since the amount of parts needed is greater due to mixed surface.

[Simmi]

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/septe...0--12-12-.html

Nandan says they're considering four car teams for Wales and Australia. Catalunya wasn't considered since the amount of parts needed is greater due to mixed surface.

All sounds quite promising. All these teams seem pretty keen to keep things even, hence why I suggested four cars for GB and then Paddon misses Spain, Sordo misses Australia. Four cars on a long haul might be a bit of a stretch.

[noel157]

Paddon on the situation on his FB page, but not much other than GB and Oz:

https://www.facebook.com/haydenpaddonwrc

[dimviii]

Dani Sordo: "At the moment, nobody has told me not to run"

he is rather restrained in his social networks, but yesterday, early in the afternoon, shortly after his team made the signing of Andreas Mikkelsen, Dani Sordo was angry - and rightly so - to see the tweets that one published of the British broadcasters of the official WRC radio, assuming that with the addition of the Norwegian, Hyundai would relegate the bench to Spanish for the last two championship rallies: Wales and Australia (both on land).
MARCA has contacted him to know the slogans transmitted to him by his bosses, and to know whether or not his status as Hyundai driver could influence Mikkelsen's arrival at the Alzenau squad.
Andreas Mikkelsen
Obviously, whenever you get a new partner, especially as a fast driver like him, to some extent is a threat to those who are already on the team. But life is not easy and the job you have to earn every day.
Wales and Australia
15 minutes before they announced it, Alain Penasse [his sports director] called me to tell me the subject. The only thing that is certain is that Paddon is not going to make Catalonia, although I am sorry for him, the truth, because he has had bad luck this year. At the moment, nobody has told me that I will not run the last two rallies, so I felt bad that someone on Twitter started to speculate and I assumed that they were going to come down, when that is not what he said the team. They want to put a fourth car for the last races, at least that's what I've been told. For Wales I see it as feasible; Australia, perhaps, is more expensive and more complicated to carry. We'll see what happens.
2018
Since before Germany we knew that the bosses wanted to make some signing for the next year. In the end, they have chosen Mikkelsen. In a few months we will know what alignment they decide. I do not know if next year I will do the whole World Cup or not, what worries me most is to stay competitive and get some more victory.
Change of equipment
I have not thought about it. I'm not going anywhere else. I have a contract with Hyundai and I want to finish my career here.
Rally of Catalonia
I'm going to leave as in Germany: thinking about victory. Last year I tried with all my might. On Friday we finished the ground stage leaders and thought we could win, but we could do nothing to hold Ogier on asphalt with the Polo. Let's see if this time everything goes well and we are able to finish.

http://www.marca.com/motor/rallies/2...a4a8b45d0.html

[mknight]

Self-quote from 20/8:

After Monte and Sweden they looked like by far the best car, same was true for most rallies and in Poland they got max points.
Then came Finland and Germany, at both rallies they ended as the last manufacturer. In Finland that was probably not so unexpected but in Germany people (including me) thought they would dominate. Even without the mistakes the stagetimes didn't look much better than others, certainly not compared to Monte or Corsica.

Also before Monte their drive lineup was regarded as by far the best for manu title. Now what happens is that Paddon typically messes up on gravel rallies (where he is strongest) and Sordo messes tarmac rallies and brings safe points from gravel. On top of that they still have reliability issues.

Really wondering if some alarm bells are starting to sound at their HQ or they are thinking it's "bad luck".

Listening to Nandan interview they did sound alarm bells ("we had to do some changes"). Resulting in hiring Mikkelsen and probably some car changes as well.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Nandan was pretty non-comittal about the possible reg change to 4 cars in 2018.

Sounds like quite a lot to discuss about the implications.

I hope the regs stay with 3 cars for another year.

[Simmi]

So it does seem some fairly safe assumptions -

Mikkelsen has signed with Hyundai for 2018
Four cars for GB

[mknight]

Sordo:

I have a contract with Hyundai and I want to finish my career here.

Does that mean he aims to end at the end of 2018?
He is "only" 6 years older than Mikkelsen, 4 years older than Tanak and 4 years younger than Meeke, so it can be a bit early in a way.
He is relatively safe bet to score decent points just like Sainz was at Citroen, but it is also telling that he only has a single rally win from his long career. Guess his future past 2018 will depend on number of seats and point scoring rules for 3rd/4th drivers. (provided he keeps at least same pace as now)

[Andre Oliveira]

"I want" is different that "i will".