Hyundai deputy team director Julien Moncet’s World Rally Championship future appears to be in doubt as he hinted to DirtFish that he may not be at many events next year.
Moncet has been part of Hyundai Motorsport ever since it entered the WRC in 2014, taking full control of the powertrain division in 2019.
But after Andrea Adamo’s departure as team principal at the end of 2021, Moncet was promoted to run the team but only as a deputy rather than taking full reign.
It’s a position he has found himself in for the entire 2022 season, so the identity of Hyundai’s team principal has been under scrutiny for months now.
Moncet has led the team through a very difficult season both on and off the stages where performance has greatly increased since the dreadful start on the Monte to the point where Hyundai can claim a personal best fifth win of the season on this weekend’s Rally Japan.
But, perhaps owing to the unclear internal structure, there have been plenty of intra-team politics, not least between lead drivers Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak who even publicly stated Moncet was not the right candidate to lead Hyundai back in August.
Moncet has often had little to share regarding his own future, but DirtFish’s Colin Clark noticed a comment made on Moncet’s personal Facebook page that suggested Japan might not just be his last rally for 2022.
“Obviously it’s easier to try to figure out what will be our driver lineup next year than the team principal,” Moncet told DirtFish in Japan.
“It’s a weird situation that I’m not happy with, but it’s like that.”
Asked if it was proposed that things stay the same in 2023, with Moncet running the team as deputy but still fulfilling his role as powertrain manager, he said: “Not as deputy, definitely not for a second year like that.
“I think anyway some decision will be taken soon and you will know in Monte Carlo, but before… I don’t know.
“It’s a very difficult question for me to answer. I have part of the answer, and I’m not sure we’ll meet a lot in the future.”
Moncet’s focus this week is very much on Rally Japan though, where he hopes a victory could banish plenty of the bad memories from 2022.
“Hopefully we can get the fifth. Five would be another record. We have done some this year but I think regardless this one here in Japan could be let’s say the cherry on the cake.
“We could forget about all the bad moments we had this year, it’s very important because we are on Toyota’s soil, but as well to go with the good mood to prepare for next season.”
