Newly crowned world champion Thierry Neuville and third-place finisher Ott Tänak will continue with Hyundai next year, but the situation regarding a third or even a potential fourth car remains unresolved.
Hyundai has not confirmed whether it will field three cars next season or possibly add a fourth. Equally uncertain is who will drive these cars.
In the past season, Neuville and Tänak drove full-time, while Esapekka Lappi, Dani Sordo, and Andreas Mikkelsen rotated in the third car. However, will Hyundai stick with the same strategy next year, and how successful was this year’s approach?
“What I can say is that I don’t think we made our drivers life very easy,” Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul admitted.
“In hindsight, two drivers are probably better than three simply because of the limited driving opportunities due to test restrictions. It’s not that easy to get into the rhythm properly under those circumstances,” he continued.
Toyota also used part-time drivers this past season. Kalle Rovanperä and Sebastien Ogier alternated in the team’s third car, while Sami Pajari gained experience throughout the season, and Takamoto Katsuta drove all but one rally.
Next season, Toyota is switching tactics, with four drivers – Elfyn Evans, Rovanperä, Pajari, and Katsuta – committing to full seasons. Only Ogier will continue as a part-time driver.
“Yes, Toyota had part-time drivers, but they are also world champions, and they had more rallies than our drivers. I also think the way we defined the schedule wasn’t great,” Abiteboul reflected.
There were too many gaps between some drivers’ appearances, which affected their seat time and consistency.”
Hyundai led the manufacturers’ championship by 15 points heading into Japan but lost the title to Toyota after the final stage. Abiteboul believes the above-mentioned issue played a key role in the outcome.
“I think this is an area where we didn’t optimise things as well as we could have this year. So, when you talk about Toyota deserving their position, it’s probably also because we didn’t optimise this area. Frankly, if you want to win a championship, you need everything to be at its optimum, and in this part, we weren’t” Abiteboul emphasised.
Changes seem likely for next season. Based on Abiteboul’s comments, Hyundai might aim to solidify its line-up with full-time drivers. This would suggest that, alongside Neuville and Tänak, a third permanent driver could join Hyundai to compete in all rallies. However, Abiteboul has not confirmed this outright.
“Does that mean we should move to one permanent third driver next year? Maybe. Maybe not,” Abiteboul pondered.
“We’ll reflect on it and make a decision in the next couple of weeks.”
