Hyundai Motorsport has no plans to run private Rally1 cars in the World Rally Championship through the next homologation cycle.
Though Hyundai has made its current i20 Coupe WRCs available to customers through satellite teams like 2C Compétition, team principal Andrea Adamo told DirtFish he doesn’t see that happening from January.
“In Rally1 I can exclude [private cars] now,” he said. “We are a bit behind the others and I have to focus to make the [factory] cars proper.”
Adamo admitted he feels the cost of the current cars could be prohibitive for privateers.
“It’s not my plan to rent cars. It’s part of somebody else’s plan,” he said.
“These cars are costing me much more than a current car, so I cannot see a customer being able to pay this money. I hardly see somebody being able to manage these cars.”
Conversely, M-Sport has talked of hiring out factory-specification Puma Rally1s from early next year – with as many as five cars possible for round two in Sweden.
“Malcolm [Wilson, M-Sport managing director] will make it work, I’m sure,” added Adamo.
“He is a different organization from the one that I have – he’s always been able to manage customer WRC cars in his organization and he’s a master of that. I respect him for being able to do this 100%, but it’s a different kind of staff.
“For me, it’s more difficult inside my organization and I don’t want to compromise anything to make it happen. I think I’m asking enough to my people in the last two years.
“I want to focus 100% to what we have in hand – Hyundai Motorsport’s focus in the WRC is to win the title not have as many customers as we can there.”
