Hyundai has already confirmed its entry into the World Endurance Championship (WEC) Hypercar category in 2026 with its Genesis luxury brand.
For a long time, it was thought that taking part in WEC might even lead to Hyundai withdrawing completely from the World Rally Championship, but that is not going to happen – at least not just yet.
However, it is clear that joining WEC will also have an impact on Hyundai’s rally programme. The team’s technical director, Francois-Xavier Demaison, will certainly see the change in his daily work, since in future he will be responsible not only for the World Rally Championship but also for the overall picture of WEC.
Hyundai is already fully preparing for participation in WEC, and because of this, team resources have had to be shifted to start the new project. Demaison was forced to admit openly that the change has already begun to show on the World Rally Championship side.
“It’s difficult to say no. For sure we have people who moved to the other project; we have people who are halfway between both projects, so it for sure takes energy out of the rally [program],” Demaison admitted directly to Dirtfish.
“We won in ELMS, we won in TCR, so we have other projects where we spend energy. We want to fight with Toyota and we have to find solutions so that we can do all these three major projects together and be competitive on all three,” Demaison explained about Hyundai’s challenge.
Demaison confirmed that the rally project will not be left lacking.
“We have a development plan for next year. And also some recruitment of people to try to resize the team like it should be,” Demaison said.
Hyundai’s season in the World Rally Championship has been difficult. The team’s star driver Thierry Neuville feels that part of the problems can indeed be explained by running two overlapping projects.
“I know we are all working hard,” Neuville said.
“There is a plan of development. Will it bring enough, what it needs? Honestly, I think it is not the right moment for this debate. We know it has been a challenging few months, [not] knowing if the team continues or not, people leaving, two programs,” Neuville continued.
It is quite likely that the reduction in resources will continue to affect Hyundai’s performance for some time.
“I mean, you cannot fight against Toyota when the engagement is not the same as it has been before. Obviously now we have more insurance, but now to start the machine again, it takes some time,” Neuville summed up.
