The FIA announced in February that the current hybrid units would be abandoned after this season.
The decision sparked a lot of criticism and eventually, the FIA and the WRC completely changed their minds. In June, it was announced that the current Rally1 cars would not be abandoned, but the original plan would be followed.
In other words, the current Rally1 cars will continue until the end of the current homologation period and until the end of 2026.
Hyundai was perhaps hit the hardest by the news, as the team had already planned to develop a new version of their Rally1 car for next season. Now, their plans have been completely altered.
Hyundai’s WRC program manager and technical guru Christian Loriaux has been very busy. He has often had to answer questions to the point of exhaustion about what next season’s car will be like and what will change.
“I think I’ve been giving you that answer for maybe 20 or 30 years – but it’s the same today: if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you”, Loriauax joked to Dirtfish.
“I don’t want to kill you”, Loriaux then said seriously and continued:
“We’re working hard. For sure, we would have liked to do a new car – mainly because this car we had to do in quite a rush. Really, we’re looking at trying to do (an) evolution for next year”, Loriaux revealed.
Hyundai currently leads both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships. This naturally raises the question of how much evolution is even needed for next season’s car.
Everything is quite good in the Korean manufacturer’s camp at the moment. However, development stops with satisfaction, and this is also recognised by Hyundai.
“Hyundai, Thierry (Neuville), and Ott (Tänak) are in a good position at the moment”, Loriaux admitted.
“But we still only have done six rallies out of 13. There’s still seven rallies to go. If you have one rally where you have a crash on a Saturday, where you damage the roll cage, you cannot come back on a Sunday, you do a zero point. Straightaway you could drop very far away, so nothing is over. Not by a long, long way”, Loriaux continued.
