Two weeks ago, Christian Loriaux was hard at work. Gravitating towards the Hyundai tent and the draw of a hot coffee from Pirelli hospitality, he cast an eye over the team’s first public running of a hybrid-less i20 N Rally1 at Monza Rally Show.
I was lucky to spend around half an hour sat with Christian trying to make sense of what the future of the World Rally Championship looked like. It’s utterly bizarre thinking back to early December now that his future with Hyundai wouldn’t even last until the end of 2024.
But maybe I should have seen it coming. At one point I asked the question: does the 2027 regulation proposal represent something he could take to Cyril Abiteboul and top management in Korea to justify the team’s continued participation in rallying’s top level?
His wording was clever.
“In the end if you want to go rallying, it’s a regulation that makes sense,” he said. “You’ve got your brand, you can still make the car look like the car you want to market because the external shape, you will have enough freedom to keep the look of the car you want to market.
“So, yes, I think it’s in the interest of everyone.”
That is where the alarm bell started to ring in my head. Everyone. I asked about Hyundai, not everyone. I tried to ignore it. I’m jumping to conclusions, I told myself. Being overly negative. Maybe I should have read more into it.
Pablo Marcos has been doing WRC team coordination and management for a while now after a career of co-driving and has been re-hired by Hyundai after leaving for M-Sport in 2023. His job title is the same as last time but as Abiteboul points out, his “remit is very different” this time. His focus is on making sure the Rally1 team maximizes its potential once the teams and drivers rock up to the service park.
Given his wealth of experience, Loriaux was a key asset to the team – but this change seems to be aimed at spreading his workload across more individuals. Tolga Ozakinci, who had taken Marcos’ job when he left in 2023, now has a factory-based operations management role instead. And anything technical falls back to Francois Xavier-Demaison – who is primarily occupied with a future in the World Endurance Championship.
“We had a very strong 2024 season but didn’t achieve everything we set out to,” said Abiteboul. “So looking ahead to a transformative year for our motorsport operations we have spent time considering how we can streamline our organization.”
Hyundai lost out on this year's manufacturers' title on the very last stage of the season
Missing out on the manufacturers’ title this season will have hurt. The manner in which Hyundai had it in its grasp and then lost it will have stung even harder. Thierry Neuville’s title was a key goal achieved but for its manufacturers’ title failure someone’s head was going to roll – snatching defeat from the jaws of victory typically leads to retribution.
Abiteboul jokingly suggested at Central European Rally that it could be him on the chopping block: “I am team principal right now,” he said. ”You know, maybe I’m sacked if we don’t win the championship. So let’s see!”
In the end, it was Loriaux who fell. And in fairness, the thinking makes sense in the context of looking to go one better in 2025 than in 2024. More man hours assigned to optimizing operations is unlikely to cause short-term problems.
The issue is the long-term. Loriaux had clear ideas on what the future of the WRC needed to look like. Whether you agreed with those ideas or not is besides the point. He had a vision. And he has a track record of delivering fast cars from the drawing board through to the special stages.
Loriaux's record of designing WRC cars is strong, but he's been let go by Hyundai
Hyundai just offloaded the person it needed most if it was to look at developing a car for the 2027 (or, if you ask Loriaux, 2028) regulations. The person most likely to fly the WRC flag internally to convince management that, yes, a factory effort at the top level is worth investing in, is no longer there to make the case.
Is Abiteboul going to go the extra mile to convince the board in Korea that continuing the WRC program as a concurrent investment alongside WEC is worthwhile?
Tools have been downed by Loriaux at Alzenau. And that makes it more likely everyone else will be following suit a year from now.
