Hyundai has secured two star drivers, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak, for next WRC season. However, it remains unclear who will drive the team’s third car – or whether a fourth car might even be on the grid.
This season, Esapekka Lappi, Andreas Mikkelsen, and Dani Sordo have shared Hyundai’s third Rally1 car. For next season, M-Sport Ford’s French ace Adrien Fourmaux has been rumoured to join the team.
Ahead of the season-closing Rally Japan, Abiteboul kept Hyundai’s final plans under wraps.
“As I said earlier, it’s coming after Japan. So we are close,” Abiteboul said with a smile.
According to Abiteboul, even the team itself has not finalised the driver line-up yet.
“We have some people coming from (Hyundai) headquarters this weekend, so that will also be an opportunity for them to join the discussions we’ve had over the course of the year about getting the team to operate effectively and reaching certain conclusions for next year regarding the setup, drivers, and cars.”
“I still have the ambition to explore how we could possibly line up a fourth car, and that’s one of the discussions we’ll have over the course of this weekend, which will definitely have some impact on our driver choices,” the French team boss revealed.
Abiteboul mentioned that his hope is to field four Hyundai Rally1 cars at selected WRC events in the 2025 season. At the same time, he hinted at a significant development concerning Toyota, Hyundai’s fiercest competitor.
“There are still some things that I would like to try and do for a number of reasons, not least because I think Toyota will line up a large number of cars for next year,” Abiteboul stated.
Toyota is expected to announce its driver line-up after Rally Japan. Kalle Rovanperä is set to return as a full-time driver, with Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta, and Sebastien Ogier also likely to continue. Sami Pajari is expected to take on a bigger role in the Rally1 car. There are also rumours linking other drivers to Toyota.
Rally Japan will get fully underway on Friday, with eight stages on the schedule.
