Hyundai already starts 2015

Arriving at the start of the season, with the announced objective of gaining experience for 2015, Hyundai is progressing according to the planned program, even bringing back its first laurels such as the podium of Thierry Neuville in Mexico. In addition to continuing the 2014 program, the Korean brand is already largely focused on 2015 with the first concepts of the future car underway.

“As far as general engineering is concerned, the concepts of the future i20 will be similar. On the other hand, I think it will be a completely new car from a hardware point of view. » explains Michel Nandan, French Team Principal of the team on the site of WRC. If we took a little more time on the design, it's because we made a lot of progress thanks to what we learned from the 2014 car. This allowed us to improve a lot of things. Furthermore, the dimensions of the car will be different and some current elements will not fit. We plan to carry out the first tests during the summer. I am waiting until we are a little further along in the project to detail the agenda. Of course, our goal is to try to do as much as possible, but we really want to take care of this new project and not move too quickly. »

The basic work was entrusted to Bryan Bouffier, recently recalled by the Korean brand and who had given the i20 its first victory at the Rally from Antibes. “It is necessary to have a driver who is involved in this type of thing, because you have to do a lot of testing at the start before you can get a racing driver involved. Of course, Thierry Neuville will be involved at the start of the project but much of the groundwork can be done by Bryan. Our racing drivers have a lot to do during pre-season testing: it's difficult to do both, they also need to rest in between," says Nandan.

We will find the i20 version 2014 at the end of June, on the tracks of the Polish Rally, the next round of the WRC.