Hyundai confirmed on Friday that it has signed Lappi as a part-time driver for the 2026 season. Lappi will contest selected WRC rounds and share the team’s third Rally1 car with Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon.
Read more: Hyundai confirms 2026 WRC line-up as Lappi, Sordo and Paddon return
Hyundai revealed in its announcement that Lappi’s first WRC event of the season will be Rally Sweden in February. No further details of Lappi’s programme were disclosed.
“Since they didn’t mention more rallies, I won’t mention any more either. To some extent those rallies can still change anyway, if someone happens to pull off a win in the first event, for example. You can play the game in many ways. That’s why they don’t publish straight away who drives where,” Lappi told RallyJournal.com.
“But I think it’s pretty clear to everyone where we’ll be driving in July and August. Then something else in between or afterwards. Let’s put it this way, politically,” Lappi quipped.
Lappi was referring to the fast gravel events in Estonia and Finland, where he would be in his element. But can it already be taken as certain that Lappi will contest his home event in Jyväskylä?
“I think I could believe that this might happen. I’ve got a little something stuck in my teeth from a couple of rallies, in several countries. We’ll go and fix those gaps or remove whatever debris is stuck there,” Lappi said.
What is certain is that Lappi will contest every round of next year’s Finnish Rally Championship in a Škoda Rally2 car. Lappi and co-driver Enni Mälkönen will enter the season as the defending champions.
Before the start of his WRC campaign, Lappi will take part in the Finnish Championship events in Mikkeli and Rovaniemi.
“I can’t say that the WRC programme has been planned around the Finnish Championship. It doesn’t directly work that way, but to some extent we did look at it. But everything works out as we agreed earlier,” Lappi underlined.
