New World Rally Championship tire supplier Hankook has been praised for the robustness of its tires following the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.
For 2025 Hankook has taken over from Pirelli which served as the WRC’s tire partner from 2021-2024, and despite fears over tires not being ready in time the new rubber has been given a thumbs up from the drivers – particularly for how puncture-proof they were.
Monte winner Sébastien Ogier told DirtFish: “I think the tires, there is some room for improvement in some areas but you need to still say that it wasn’t bad at all for a first ever rally.
“Well done Hankook, I think there was less tire issues, very few punctures I believe and that’s already a good point on my side because in the last season I was a bit unhappy to have many punctures – even if it improved a lot during the Pirelli time.
“Yeah, on that side it starts good but for sure we will debrief together and try to, I think, speak what we can do to improve the product for the future, but it’s a good start for the WRC.”
Fourmaux was the first Hyundai driver to try out Hankooks in a competitive setting, sampling them on last December's Rallye Hivernal Du Dévoluy
The soft and super-soft compounds received high praise, although several drivers felt the winter tire could be improved. However there was understanding that Hankook is new to the WRC and it should be afforded time to make things perfect.
“There is a lot of positives on the slicks,” said Adrien Fourmaux. “As you can see, there is no punctures or things like that for drivers, which is really positive also for Monte Carlo.
“The snow needs to be improved, but I know they are working on it, so we can expect next year to be a good snow tire. To be fair, I think they can be pleased with what they have achieved.
“But then just a week after, we need to work a little bit more with them for the future, for the other Tarmac rallies, because I’ve never tried the hard tires. The soft, will it be the same soft for the other rallies? So we need to discuss. Yeah, everything is in progress.”
Some of the impacts we've had and some of the sharp edges on the cuts, there's no chance that a Pirelli would have survived those.Gus Greensmith
Hyundai team-mate Ott Tänak added:”Reliability wise I would say very good. Obviously Monte is normally quite harsh for the tire with the big cuts and sharp edges.
“I would say the slick also, not too bad, performing quite well. Probably the winter tire can be improved for next year but I think it’s all part of the process.”
The Rally2 tires proved equally as popular, with Gus Greensmith declaring “I don’t really have anything negative to say to Hankook”.
“I think they’ve been really good,” he explained. “Some of the impacts we’ve had and some of the sharp edges on the cuts, there’s no chance that a Pirelli would have survived those.
Bigger studs and improved disappation of slush have been two of the areas marked out for improvement on the snow tires by drivers
“So yeah, I’ve been quite impressed so far. Maybe make the studs a little bit bigger but apart from that it’s been very good.”
Hankook’s motorsport senior director Manfred Sandbichler was delighted with his first weekend of WRC action. He added: “As a company, we are very proud of what we achieved in Monte Carlo last week.
“We are very happy with this great success and the way we have done this job. This brings us now in a situation where we feel more confident than before in everything – not just in our product, but in the general mood in the service park.”
Hankook’s full winter tire will debut in two weeks for round two in Sweden (February 13-16).