Hyundai Motorsport deputy team director Julien Moncet has reiterated his desire to remain in charge of the team for the rest of the World Rally Championship season – and admits that’s a possible outcome – as Hyundai’s internal restructure continues.
The last 12 months have represented a period of instability for the Alzenau-based team, which all stemmed from sign off at Hyundai board level to compete in the new hybrid Rally1 era of the WRC not coming until March last year – several months after Ford and Toyota.
That put Hyundai majorly on the back foot in terms of testing – a situation that was then compounded by Thierry Neuville’s 30-meter crash down a ravine and the sudden departure of team principal Andrea Adamo.
Ever since Adamo’s departure Hyundai Motorsport has been subject to an internal review as bosses look to optimize the team’s structure.
Moncet was promoted from his role as powertrain manager to lead the team on both the Monte Carlo Rally and Rally Sweden and remains in charge for next week’s Croatia Rally too.
But despite some changes like Andrea Cisotti’s promotion to customer racing manager, Hyundai’s restructuring process is still not complete.
Asked by DirtFish how close the team is to finalizing its review, Moncet said: “Well it’s difficult to answer, I can only say we are getting closer every day.
“I think reasonably talking, I hope in the next weeks we will know a bit more about our future organization and we can have some stability.”
Quizzed if it was possible he could remain in his position, Moncet replied: “I think it’s one of the possibilities yes, but once again this question is not up to me to answer.
“If I am asked to continue, I will do it, but it’s not up to me.”
Then pressed if he wanted the job on a permanent basis, Moncet confirmed: “Yeah, yeah, sure.”
One managerial change that has been made recently was the appointment of Sean Kim as Hyundai Motorsport president, replacing Scott Noh who had held the position since 2018.
This was however not a performance related appointment, as Hyundai Motorsport has a policy in place where a president is in charge for a set number of years before the role is given to somebody else.
Moncet met Kim for the first time on Monday and is confident he will be a good fit.
“For sure I know he has a technical background, he was a chassis engineer so he has the knowledge and understanding to support us in our activity,” he said.
“We are on the verge as I said since the beginning to reorganize ourselves and our structure, so I think it’s the right moment to maybe go for the next period and build for the future.”
