Looking ahead to the future of its competitive motorsport operations in the World Rally Championship, Hyundai is actively working to ensure previous missteps are avoided during the upcoming development cycle. The Korean manufacturer is currently preparing a significant raft of homologation updates for its i20 N Rally2 machine, targeting a competitive debut in 2027 while carefully recalibrating its engineering strategies based on past experiences.
Although the brand's long-term future in the top tier of rallying remains officially unconfirmed, development work is moving forward swiftly. The newly updated car was spotted undergoing rigorous testing in Finland, where veteran driver Kris Meeke handled driving duties during the opening sessions, followed immediately by World Rally winner Hayden Paddon taking over the cockpit to evaluate chassis behavior and overall handling characteristics.
Hyundai Motorsport president Cyril Abiteboul candidly admitted that the highly aggressive 'evo' package introduced to their top-tier rally machine in 2025 proved overly radical, shifting the team away from a proven title-contending baseline established in 2024. By acknowledging that those extreme technical shifts created unexpected performance hurdles, the management team is now channeling all those vital technical lessons directly into the secondary category program.
"Quite some change, frankly. I mean our approach on that program was fairly radical," Cyril Abiteboul explained to DirtFish regarding the past updates. He further noted that the team wants to evaluate how much performance the latest adjustments will actually deliver, ensuring the upcoming Rally2 machine benefits directly from every single engineering lesson learned throughout the challenging top-class campaign.
Historically recognized as a formidable tarmac contender while occasionally struggling to match rivals on loose surfaces, the latest homologation efforts aim to rectify that performance imbalance. Engineers are intentionally focusing on universal handling refinements rather than altering tarmac setups, successfully transforming the challenger into an all-round machine capable of dominating across diverse rally stages.
Baca Juga
Simak analisis mendalam bagaimana Hyundai belajar dari kesalahan program Rally1 untuk mengembangkan i20 N Rally2 2027. Baca selengkapnya di sini!
Hayden Paddon gantikan Kris Meeke uji mobil Rally2 Hyundai di Finlandia. Simak analisis mendalam perjalanan sang juara ERC di sini.
Simak analisis lengkap rumor kembalinya Kalle Rovanpera ke WRC 2027 bersama Toyota dan jadwal pengumuman resmi tim. Baca selengkapnya di sini!
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