Mikkelsen chose a partial WRC season with Hyundai. Having won the WRC2 category for the second time last season, Mikkelsen will share the Korean manufacturer’s third Rally1 car with Esapekka Lappi and Dani Sordo.
Mikkelsen, who drove for Hyundai from 2017 to 2019, returns to a team that has undergone significant changes since. The appointment of new team principal Cyril Abiteboul last season and the technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison, familiar to Mikkelsen from his Volkswagen days, convinced him to forego the opportunity to compete with a rival team for a full year.
“I see more future here (at Hyundai). I think Hyundai is really properly in the WRC,” Mikkelsen tells Motorsport.com.
“Ford is half in I would say, and we all know this that it is Malcolm (Wilson) and his team and he gets some budget with Ford, and it is hard to say what the future is there. We could have had a full programme at M-Sport.”
The number of races Mikkelsen will compete in this season remains a mystery. However, it is certain that he will start in the i20 N Rally1 car in Monte Carlo in a couple of weeks. Esapekka Lappi will take his turn in February’s snow rally in Sweden. It is expected that Lappi and Mikkelsen will compete in a few more rallies than the Spanish veteran Sordo.
“You have to think about your options and also long-term and when you see the people now at Hyundai with Cyril and FX, whom I know very well at Volkswagen, these are people that I trust. So not only looking at this year I think it is a better choice for me at Hyundai,” Mikkelsen explains.
“For me, it is a one-year contract, but I hope if I deliver well there could be more. I think that would be natural.”
It’s also clear that Mikkelsen would have had to bring sponsor money to M-Sport, whereas with Hyundai, this financial burden is not present. In the Monte Carlo rally on January 25-28, Mikkelsen returns to the helm of a top-caliber car in the WRC after several years.
“The thing that is good about starting with Monte is you don’t need to be 100% with the car there to deliver a good result because there are so many other factors,” Mikkelsen told.
“I’m happy I’m starting at Monte even though it is very difficult.”
