Hyundai has promised to “come back absolutely fighting” when the World Rally Championship shifts to gravel and Rally Portugal in May.
The i20 N Rally1 squad currently trails Toyota by 65 points in the manufacturers’ championship after four rounds, without a single rally victory in 2026.
This week the WRC heads to the asphalt rounds of Gran Canaria where sporting director Andrew Wheatley has quiet confidence the team can “continue chasing” the top step of the podium.
But the renaissance is targeted to begin on the gravel of Rally Portugal (May 7-10).
“Yes, we’re moving forward,” Wheatley told DirtFish. “Every time we do a test we make a small step forward and we’re doing a lot of testing. We know that for Portugal we have a step, we have an opportunity.”
What is that opportunity? Where is that step?
“To be honest, it’s across the drivetrain, but it’s between the differentials, the dampers, the kinematics, the geometry,” Wheatley added. “We know that there are steps that we can make, we’ve just not been able to achieve them all for this because of the way that the regulations work in the rallies.
“But we will come back absolutely fighting in Portugal as much as we possibly can. Dani [Sordo] has been competing in the test car and I spoke to him last night. He’s got a good feeling in the car. He’s going to have an opportunity to drive in Canary Islands and get himself back into Rally1 world. And then we will absolutely come fighting in Portugal.”
Adrien Fourmaux confirmed he also felt more confident for Portugal, the first of eight gravel rallies to come over the remaining 10 events. But when asked what gave him that extra confidence, Fourmaux said: “I cannot tell you that.”
However Hyundai’s recent form suggests that the team should fare better on the loose, even without any improvements to the car.
“We know on gravel we are performing well,” Fourmaux explained. “Portugal last year was a good performance, but also Greece, Sardinia, so we’ll do our best to deliver the best result.”
