Clandestine meetings, Machiavellian plotting and planning. It’s been quite a week, what with a leader in the firing line and an organization apparently divided.
I could continue to lead you down the road to think I’m talking a week being a very long time in British politics. Sadly, that’s not the subject of this story. For Boris Johnson read Julien Moncet.
Actually Julien, I’m terribly sorry – your position is quite different to that of Britain’s prime minister. But there are, undoubtedly, those within Hyundai Motorsport who feel the likeable Frenchman should follow the lead of the recently resigned Johnson.
Personally, I don’t think Moncet should resign. But asking him to run a transmission department as well as the whole team is unrealistic. For me, he should focus on what he clearly does best: the driveline. And we know he’s a world leader in that department because his cars won the manufacturers’ championship for two of the last three seasons.
Hyundai Motorsport is a team packed full of energy, initiative and talent, there’s no doubt about that. But times are tough right now. We all know the Alzenau squad was some way behind in getting sign off on its Rally1 car and the legacy of that troubled timeline is still haunting them today.
Go to the stores department of any automotive concern ranging from your local repair shop all the way up to the world’s finest WRC teams and you’ll find the same thing: space. What was once straightforward, ie, ordering replacement parts and expecting them to arrive in a matter of days or weeks is now very much a thing of the last.
Moncet talks openly about parts which once took six weeks to arrive now taking six months plus. The war in Ukraine, COVID and Brexit have very much taken their toll on the supply chain. Of the three teams, it seems Hyundai is struggling more than most. Talk of tests being halted due to the lack of some fairly fundamental bits is rife. Again Moncet is upfront and admits it’s come down to prioritizing competition over development.
I’m not going beat about the bush here, the team needs Andrea Adamo back. Putting him back in position would free Moncet up to focus on what he’s absolutely best at. Or, here’s an idea, relieve him of his other duties and let him concentrate on being a leader able to look in a macro rather than micro manner.
Adamo’s a leader. No doubt about that. Like all leaders, he’s not universally popular, but he put silverware on the table in two of the three seasons he’d been in charge. The regime before him? Less so. The regime after him? Less so. He has his faults, but he’s a man who’s ready to get stuck in and fight for his people.
A reflection of how this management matter is coming to a head is the private meeting held between Ott Tänak, Thierry Neuville and the team’s high-ranking Koreans in Frankfurt this week.
Asked how he felt the meeting had done, Moncet’s response was withering.
“I was not part of these meetings.”
The Tänak win in Sardinia gave Hyundai room to breathe, but not much. And that, in many ways, is unfair. I know a lot of the people in that team and I know how hard they’re working and how much success they deserve. It’s more than they’re seeing right now. Certainly more than they saw last time out.
Safari Rally Kenya exposed the weaknesses in the organization as much as the car, but there’s a gilt-edged opportunity to demonstrate the pace of the i20 N Rally1 in three rallies across the next two months. Estonia, Finland and Belgium are not the most taxing on rally cars.
The most important asset from Tartu to Ypres via Jyväskylä? A gutsy motor up front. Hyundai’s got that and it’s quite possible it could win all three.
Such a run would present a very different picture as the Acropolis rolls into view in September.
But still, the good folk of Alzenau would need to look at any cracks in the paint in that picture and decide on the best way forward for the future. Paper over them or grasp the nettle and make a change?
