Hyundai’s long-term rally future remains unclear. Clarity on its World Rally Championship presence beyond the end of this season is yet to arrive.
But here’s what we do know about Hyundai: it’s headed for the World Endurance Championship next year with a two-car Hypercar effort under its Genesis premium brand.
Cyril Abiteboul was the driving force behind that move. And while Hyundai’s board in Korea will ultimately decide the fate of Hyundai’s WRC presence, Abiteboul’s evaluation of the WRC will influence that call.
Fundamentally, understanding why WEC was so appealing to Hyundai helps inform what manufacturers need from the WRC to justify their rallying programs.
What, in Abiteboul’s opinion, does the WRC need – and what can it learn from WEC?
Abiteboul feels the WRC needs more diversity of cars
“It is, and should remain, a driver championship,” Abiteboul told DirtFish.
“But what I would like is to see how we can build a connection between the driver and the customer, being able to face extreme conditions in a diversity of cars. Diversity of cars is key and we know that there’s been a golden age of WRC with very different cars. And I dream of that.”
Diversity of cars is a key component of WEC. It has two types of platform at the top level: Hypercar (LMH) and Daytona hybrid (LMDh) – the latter allows cars to compete both in Europe and in America’s IMSA series, and it’s the regulation to which the Genesis entry will be built.
Hypercar allows manufacturers to build cars from the ground up themselves, while LMDh utilizes a shared framework with a common hybrid system.
Four suppliers – Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic, and Oreca – exclusively build the platforms from which LMDh cars are created. Oreca is constructing the Genesis chassis, with the twin-turbo V8 to power it developed in-house as an evolution of the 1.6-liter four-cylinder motor that powers its i20 N Rally1 cars.
Engine types are wildly different across the board in WEC: for example, Peugeot has a 2.6-liter turbo V6, BMW a 4-liter twin-turbo V8 and Aston Martin a normally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12.
“It’s typically a key to the success of WEC these days to recognize the diversity of platform. It’s not just a nice-to-have – it’s a must,” Abiteboul said.
“We see that carmakers are taking very different directions. Without commenting on the direction of Hyundai, of European car makers and US car makers, we want to attract different carmakers – we need to be up for different types of formula.
“There are ways to do that these days with torque sensors, torque meters. It’s very successful. I would want to make sure that it’s not just down to commercial reasons, that we don’t want to entertain those solutions, which I believe could be appropriate also for the challenge of rallying.”
As Abiteboul highlighted, there’s been a lack of convergence in the automotive market in the last decade. A once-anticipated full-speed-ahead approach to electrification has somewhat stalled – some manufacturers continue to look at alternative powertrain options instead.
It’s the Hyundai motorsport president’s opinion that widening the technical formula in rallying would not only appeal to the manufacturers – but also the fans. His time spent at the Le Mans 24 Hours while pursuing the Genesis hypercar program has led him to believe as much.
“When I go to Le Mans, I love people trying to recognize cars from the sound, from the light, from any type of signature of the car driving by, even at night,” he said. “I love that. That’s the sort of thing we could very easily do here.”
Nobody would benefit from Hyundai staying in WRC more than its current rally drivers Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux.
“I support him [Cyril] to make sure that Hyundai is still interested in the championship,” Neuville told DirtFish. “Very simple as that.
“I think the sport has lots of potential. It isn’t used to its best at the moment, that’s for sure. So, yeah, promotion and technical regulations are very important in that, and I believe that the future could be nice.”
