In the south of France, Hyundai Motorsport have now made the first tests over the last week with the brand-new Hyundai i20 N Rally1, which will become the next year’s challenger in the hybrid class Rally1 in the FIA World Rally Championship.
The company was last out testing outside the factory area, on the admittedly tough roads in the south of France, where the most common new WRC cars do their first tests was the Hyundai team last week.
The durability of the new i20 WRC based on the latest generation i20 was tested together with the new hybrid system, a check to see that everything withstood the toughest conditions regarding roads.
Everything should have worked according to plan and the team got a lot of data home, previously the car has only been driven around the company’s own test track. Now the continued work will be intensified with tests around Europe to prepare for the surfaces that are expected in the WRC series in the future, the debut will happen in Rallye Monte-Carlo 2022 for the new car.
“It’s a special moment when you take a car to the road for the first time and as always there are some challenges to face, in the case of our 2022 Rally1 challenger, we are starting from scratch with brand-new rules, a different concept and a new base model – the i20 N. It was thrilling to kick-off the testing and to start this exciting new adventure.” Andrea Adamo, Hyundai Motorsport WRC team´s Team Principal, said.
“We have seen interesting things, some that need to be changed and improved but it is all part of the process and of the job. The team has done an amazing job and has worked so hard to prepare the car for the first test in such a short amount of time. Of course, we are just at the beginning of a long journey, but I do think we have some interesting times ahead of us before Rallye Monte-Carlo 2022.”
Hyundai Motorsport drivers will have a tough time ahead, the final tests and launch of the Hyundai i20 Rally2 will be completed before the summer, while next year’s WRC car will undergo tough and long test sessions. A good chance for the team’s juniors of Oliver Solberg, Jari Huttunen and Ole-Christian Veiby to drive miles during the tests.
