Ex-Hyundai driver Ott Tänak says if Hyundai is “interested” in the World Rally Championship, it has the people and resources to fix its current problems.
Tänak drove for Hyundai between 2020-2022 and 2024-2025 but decided not to compete in the WRC this season.
Hyundai hasn’t managed a single podium so far in 2026, peaking with fourth place through Adrien Fourmaux at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally. It trails rival Toyota by 51 points in the manufacturers’ championship.
Thierry Neuville has been particularly despondent in recent rallies, admitting he’s found it harder to stay motivated as he fights to find the correct feeling aboard his i20 N Rally1.
Asked by DirtFish what he made of Hyundai’s competitive position, and if the squad can do anything with its car, Tänak emphasized” “It’s always possible, it just needs to be brought together.”
He explained: “First, it’s definitely been very sad to see Thierry down. He was already down a bit last year, but I mean, also Adrien [Fouirmaux] is going down on this and I’m surprised because he’s been always very positive and optimistic, but yeah he also seemed very down to be honest.
“But I mean they have the people and they have the resources, everything is there.”
Hyundai is currently preparing to compete in another world championship with Genesis Magma Racing contesting the World Endurance Championship for the first time later this year.
Despite François-Xavier Demaison refocusing entirely on the WRC program again, and Andrew Wheatley being appointed as WRC sporting director, Tänak believes this division of resources is affecting the rallying program.
“Yes, probably still these two projects at the same time… I mean they are eating each other, so that seems a bit of a problem,” he said.
“But yeah, I guess if they are interested, they definitely still can make it work [in WRC], even this year. Everything is there to make it work.”
Hyundai can still achieve good things if it wants to, argues Tänak
Toyota still wary of Hyundai threat
Toyota has dominated the WRC since 2025, winning 14 of the 16 events held since last year’s Monte.
But the squad is still wary of the threat Hyundai poses, so much so that it “accelerated” a new aero package for the GR Yaris Rally1 in Sweden because “we expected a big fight”.
Toyota technical director Tom Fowler told DirtFish: “In these fast rallies Hyundai has traditionally had very strong performances where they can use their engine particularly. And also in rallies like Finland last year on the fast roads, for the first day they gave us a big fright. They were probably faster than us in Finland last year until they started to run out of tires.”
Toyota also feels Hyundai is particularly strong on rough rallies, which makes its decision to relocate its permanent test site to the south of France a point of concern.
“I think where they may see a weakness, we also already see a strength,” said Fowler of Hyundai’s reliability.
“So analyzing last season, it was actually the rougher events where we struggled against them the most. In Kenya last year, we didn’t have the best Kenya we’ve ever had and we let Hyundai into the podium over there. In Greece and Sardinia we struggled in terms of performance against Hyundai and it’s these rough events – slow, technical, hot – where they seem to have a level of performance that sometimes we cannot match.
“And so this selection to move their test program into these conditions obviously makes us a little bit nervous because they’re trying to improve on something that they’re already strong in.
“But looking at the development direction of their car that we’ve seen from the FIA paperwork, it starts to make sense that they have quite a lot of new parts for these kind of rallies, so they’ve identified maybe more a reliability topic than a performance topic.”
