As RallyJournal.com reported earlier, Hyundai decided to give up its test area located in Central Finland, in Jämsä, and move it to southern France. Hyundai had been using the Central Finland test area since 2022.
Teams competing in the top class of the World Rally Championship are subject to strict testing restrictions, but the regulations do include one significant exception: at a permanent test area, teams are allowed to test without restrictions. A permanent test area is always designated for one year at a time.
Hyundai’s new permanent test base is now located in southern France, in Fontjoncouse and Château de Lastours, instead of Jämsä. The area features demanding gravel roads, allowing the car’s durability to be thoroughly tested in tough conditions. However, the area also offers the possibility to run tests on asphalt.
“We have moved the test base to the south of France from Finland with the objective to help us in the second part of the championship where there will be a lot of rough gravel,” Hyundai’s spokesperson explained to RallyJournal.com.
Esapekka Lappi will return to the World Rally Championship next season and will drive Hyundai’s third car in selected WRC rallies. For Lappi, the change of test area to southern France will at least have the impact that the journey there is considerably longer than before.
“Of course it is, in a way, disappointing, as it has always been easy to go there just for the day,” Lappi admits to RallyJournal.com.
“I do, however, fully understand the decision. That car has had quite a lot of weaknesses on asphalt, or at least it hasn’t been fast enough on asphalt. In France, we can now drive on both asphalt and gravel. In that sense, it supports the development of the car,” Lappi continues.
Leaving Jämsä behind does not otherwise bother Lappi all that much either.
“In Finland, we’ve now been grinding away on the same road for four years, so I don’t know what more you can get out of it anymore,” Lappi says bluntly.
