Rally2-class cars compete in the WRC2 category of the WRC and in numerous other international and national series. Hyundai has fallen significantly behind in the WRC2 series, struggling against Škoda, Toyota, and Citroën with its Rally2 car.
This season, Hyundai has fielded Finnish drivers Teemu Suninen and Emil Lindholm in the WRC2 category. The results have been frankly substandard. Lindholm has scored points only twice, while Suninen hasn’t earned a single point.
Lindholm has had three retirements, while Suninen has finished without retiring only once. While driver errors have played a part, technical issues have plagued the Finnish duo throughout the season.
Suninen has already announced that he will no longer compete in WRC rallies this season. It’s still unclear whether Lindholm will participate in the Central European WRC round in October.
However, one thing is almost certain: next season, there won’t be a WRC2 programme for Lindholm and Suninen under Hyundai’s banner. The team has decided that it will no longer field a WRC2 team in the WRC.
Hyundai has faced significant problems, especially in gravel rallies. As a result, Hyundai Motorsport has decided to focus on developing its car for tarmac rallies. In other words, the team will no longer focus on the WRC2 category in the WRC but will instead concentrate on national rally series.
“If you have a look at the (world) championship at the moment, it’s difficult to really compete if the car is not really performing in Sardinia, Portugal, Greece. For sure our car is struggling on those kind of conditions,” Hyundai’s customer racing manager Benoit Nogier told Dirtfish.
“When the road is much more soft, as in Finland, we saw the car was able to be at the same level as the others. On the tarmac, we saw for example on Saturday in Croatia that we were able to fight. But if you analyze what the championship is, it’s difficult to be competitive in the world championship,” Nogier added.
According to Nogier, Hyundai’s Rally2 cars are unlikely to disappear entirely from the WRC. However, the manufacturer will no longer field drivers in the series, as it did this year with Lindholm and Suninen.
Nogier said that Hyundai will still try to find partners for the WRC2 category, but “it is not the objective for next year.”
“For example, Monte Carlo, we know we have good French drivers and we will try to be at Monte Carlo for sure. And it will be a good point to show what the jokers can bring to everybody.”
