Hyundai has refreshed its 2024 World Rally Championship livery unexpectedly, ditching its original design after only one round for an updated look.
The two-tone blue livery with orange splashes that Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe drove to victory at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally will find itself becoming a one-rally special, as the introduction of a new paint scheme for Rally Sweden onwards is a permanent change for the year ahead.
That original Monte design had made its debut at last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed on an Ioniq 5 SUV, then made its way to the WRC car – but only a month on from its maiden outing, it has been superseded by an N-focused livery.
Two major changes have taken place to the design: giving far more prominence to the N performance brand that Hyundai badges its souped-up road cars with, and adding more orange to the paint scheme.
Till Wartenburg, vice president of Hyundai’s N Brand and Motorsport division, said: “The new look honors this association [between N and rally] perfectly; fans and colleagues can now associate that intricate piece of rally machinery with their road-going Hyundai car.”
Neuville, Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi will give the new livery its first appearance later this week on Rally Sweden, starting with shakedown on Thursday morning.
