Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo says his team needs to focus on producing a car capable of winning all 13 World Rally Championship rounds if it is to succeed in its efforts to defend last year’s title.
As the Korean marque gears up to challenge for a maiden Rally México win next week, Adamo looked back to round two in Sweden where the i20 Coupe WRC struggled to match Toyota’s pace with the Yaris WRC.
Given Toyota’s experience of fast roads, DirtFish.com asked Adamo if it was a case of accepting second place on fast rallies like Sweden and Finland.
“No,” he said, “it’s different. The fact that, in my opinion we are not good in roads, in my opinion is not a matter to be fast or not fast. It’s more about the loose gravel. In Great Britain last year, we were not really so competitive. We were not so bad, but we were not on top and here we are facing again a bit the same issue we had in the past in GB.
“Honestly, if you look I had a feeling we were better in Finland last year. From the experience I take since I started this job in Monte Carlo last year until today, I would say the issue we had is specific to Sweden and GB.”
The fact that this was a specific issue didn’t make it any more palatable for Adamo.
“Again,” he added, “we have shown clearly the limit our car has in term of performance on this kind of surface. We worked since last January to improve and we have not worked hard enough and we have to improve more.
“There are 13 rallies in the world championship if you want to win it, you have to be first overall everywhere.”
Asked if was surprised at Monte Carlo Rally winner Thierry Neuville’s sixth place in Sweden for the team, Adamo added: “Sometimes Thierry is able to fill the gap of performance that our car has in respect to the others. Sometimes, as he is a human being, he cannot do miracles. He is doing the best out of what he has.”
