The snowball effect behind Hyundai's WRC Rally1 false start

It’s fair to say Hyundai’s start to the World Rally Championships new Rally1 hybrid era in Monte Carlo was one to forget. The 2019-20 world champion team was plagued by a concoction of reliability issues and self-inflicted decisions on the Cote d’Azur, leaving it to face an uphill battle to regain the ground lost to their Toyota and M-Sport Ford counterparts.

Only one of Hyundai's three entries reached the finish, Thierry Neuville hauling his “scary” handling and fragile i20 N to sixth, after suffering a front right damper failure on Saturday. Ott Tanak, the 2019 world champion with Toyota, is still awaiting his first Monte finish with the team he joined in 2020 - the Estonian sliding off an icy road and into rock face after electing to run slick tyres, causing terminal damage to the front of his car.

To cap off its nightmarish plunge into the hybrid era, Hyundai was forced to withdraw new recruit Oliver Solberg after he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson had spent two days inhaling exhaust fumes that had somehow entered their cockpit. Feeling under-the-weather had contributed to the Swede losing concentration and running off the road on Saturday. There were attempts to fix the problem on Friday and Saturday night, but the solution came too late.

PLUS: How Monte masters stole the show as WRC's hybrid era blasted off

It never rains but it pours seemed an apt phrase to describe Hyundai’s voyage into the WRC’s Rally1 regulations. Deputy team director Julien Moncet - inserted as an interim boss following Andrea Adamo's surprise exit in December - perhaps summed Monte Carlo up best, saying “the situation is bad but still under control”. Cue a complete review of its Monte Carlo to address its failings and get itself back on the track.

“We will have to review altogether all the issues we had in terms of reliability and all the points to improve in terms of performance,” Moncet told Autosport on Sunday at Monte Carlo. “We will sit together, go through the list and define the actions - we will tackle all the problems one by one.

“It is disappointing but there are still some positive things to take out of this rally. One car finished, we won one stage but we know we have to work even more and push even more. We will have to ask all the people that were here in Monte Carlo and back at the factory to double their efforts. We have a bit of time until Sweden so we will have the opportunity to continue testing with our car and even more time until Croatia. The situation is bad but still under control.”

Moncet acknowledges that the Monte was not a good event for Hyundai

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

Indeed the situation is bad, but it is perhaps not completely unexpected. All of the WRC teams treated turning up at Monte Carlo with their newly-built cars as an achievement in itself - given the enormity of work undertaken to design, build and construct all-new machines from the ground up, including new hybrid technology.

The new cars represent a complete change in thinking. Cars are built around bespoke spaceframe chassis and no longer based on the production version of the car model. Gone are the clever active differentials of the past, as are the plethora of aerodynamic devices. These are replaced by a less aero dependent car, simpler front and rear differentials, and the introduction of a 100kW hybrid system that offers drivers 500 horsepower in short bursts.

However, it was Hyundai that faced the biggest of tasks as the last of the manufacturers to receive approval and press on with its Rally1 plans. With the commitment only rubber-stamped in March last year, this left the marque already playing catch up to Toyota and M-Sport Ford, a situation far from ideal with a tight turnaround to deliver its new i20 N. Such was the tightness on time, there were no guarantees it would finish its third entry before the season opener.

"We are not overstocked on man power, so I am quite sure we cannot manage with the people we have on board. We need some more people from outside" Stefan Henrich

To their credit, this was achieved. And there are no question marks surrounding the herculean effort to complete the workload and the attention to detail either. This was plain to see when Autosport was invited to Italy to witness its prototype being put through essentially a private three-day rally in Italy last October to iron out potential issues before launching the final iteration of its car the following month.

Then came a couple of perhaps unexpected crests in the road, which would have hampered any team in the midst of developing and preparing a new hybrid challenger. In a matter of days across December, the team witnessed a frightening testing crash that destroyed a car after Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe plunged into a 30 metre ravine. Both were fortunate to emerge with only minor injuries after a visit to hospital, but the test was curtailed early, losing valuable time in the process.

Days later and a little over a month before Monte Carlo, Hyundai’s charismatic leader Adamo departed citing personal reasons, ending a six-year reign that had led the team to back-to-back WRC manufacturers’ crowns in 2019 and 2020. This was a huge blow and one that will no doubt be felt for some time until a successor is chosen. That process is still ongoing.

“We had a one-man show with Andrea being on all parties at the same time, even on weekends jumping from one race to another rally and backwards and forwards,” Hyundai’s marketing director Stefan Henrich told Autosport before Monte Carlo.

Adamo's departure has left Hyundai with significant internal reorganising to do

Photo by: Hyundai

“Of course, this is something we managed a lot of things by telephone calls, WhatsApp and so on. But it is not very structured, so now in between we have our headquarters involved, we had meetings in between, and we have more meetings over the next couple of weeks with the guys. Then we will see who is taking what part of the business and responsibilities.”

When asked about the process of replacing Adamo, Henrich added: “Yes, of course, we are full throttle on that. We are not overstocked on man power, so I am quite sure we cannot manage with the people we have on board. We need some more people from outside.”

Hyundai had already undergone a staffing reshuffle last year, replacing team manager Alain Pernasse with Pablo Marcos. Having to dust itself down quickly, powertrain boss Moncet has been placed into the deputy team director role, with duties shared among its staff to account for the lack of a team principal. Given the hand Hyundai had been dealt, it was conceivable that the South Korean marque could find itself the least prepared of the tree teams for Monte Carlo.

Before a wheel had been turned in Monte Carlo, former Toyota and Cosworth F1 engine man Moncet told Autosport: “The preparation for the 2022 season has been incredibly difficult. I have some experience in motorsport now, but I can say this year it has been above everything else until now.”

Its drivers put on a brave face when speaking to media beforehand, but the overriding theme of conversation centred around achieving valuable mileage and the prospect of reliability concerns. To add further pain, Monte Carlo ran without midday services which put extra strain on the brand new machinery.

An engine issue for Tanak on the shakedown was a warning sign. But while other teams had issues too, it was Hyundai that was chasing the hardest. A general lack of pace, coupled with hybrid and handling issues, blighted the opening days in Monte Carlo but as the rally progressed the performance improved offering the team a glimmer of light. There was a stage win on Sunday for Neuville, but the cold hard reality is that Hyundai now faces a huge task ahead to recover.

The Belgian summed up the situation perfectly with his post-event reaction - one of concern but hope for the future.

“At the end of this rally, we are left with feelings of disappointment and frustration,” he said. “We had a tough weekend. I drove for my life in the Power Stage, I gave it absolutely everything, so I was disappointed with the time.

Thierry Neuville, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: Bastien Baudin / Hyundai Motorsport

“There has been a huge amount of work behind the scenes to prepare for this event, from me and Martijn, as well as the team, so to come away without any reward is hard to accept. We won’t give up. We are trying to keep everyone motivated and we will continue pushing.”

The team has time to recover lost ground, but whether it will be enough is yet to be seen. The championship’s next stop in Sweden will arrive more than month after Monte Carlo and after that the teams won’t be in action until Rally Croatia in April. This gap will provide precious time to for the team to address its problems and uncover solutions. However, the same also applies for its rivals Toyota and M-Sport to push further forward with development of the GR Yaris and Puma respectively.

"We had limited running time compared to our competitors because we were a bit behind, so it is quite encouraging. The performance is there - we just have to finish the stages" Julien Moncet

Hyundai has proved it can build and develop championship-winning rally cars, but the road ahead appears to one littered with hairpins. As outlined by Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala, the situation for teams to develop major updates in a short space of time appears bleak, given the cars have all been homologated by the FIA and the strict new regulations.

"Now that the homologation is done, it is not actually that simple,” said Latvala. “You have some opportunities to do updates, but it is not something you can do very quickly.

“The only good thing now is there is a one month break between Monte Carlo and Sweden and then a longer break before Croatia in April. These gaps are really important to use that period for testing and then you can try and homologate new parts.

“There are not so many options available. For example, with the differential ramps when you homologate them, there is two options on the front axle and two options on the rear axle. It is not like you can homologate more.”

However, there are green shoots of hope for Hyundai. Issues with the hybrid system in Monte Carlo were centred around the engine software and were quickly resolved with the assistance of of engineers from hybrid kit supplier Compact Dynamics. The German firm is confident that these problems won’t re-emerge in Sweden.

Having already completed the homologation, Hyundai can't simply develop its way out of trouble

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

The crux of an i20 N development plan was already in gestation before Monte Carlo had commenced. Moncet revealed the team already has some ideas in the pipeline for updates to its I20 N that simply the team were unable to factor in for the first event. But again, the prospect of the team unleashing a large update package seems unlikely.

“We have already some ideas in mind,” he added. “When new started the development of this car, we had a prototype and we came with a big evolution at the end of last year. Immediately once that was done, we were already thinking about the next steps and we have a clear idea for the future.

“The cars are homologated, so of course we have some small updates. But the big ones are homologated and for this you have a calendar and you cannot change parts when you want.”

The list of areas the team has to address from Monte Carlo may be long and force its staff to double its efforts, but Moncet is not hitting the panic button just yet. That recovery work has started in earnest, with the team hitting the snow covered roads of Finland last week to prepare and improve its i20 N.

The intervening weeks been Monte Carlo and this month's visit to Sweden will be crucial in providing a much clearer picture of Hyundai’s plight. Was Monte Carlo merely the result of an unfortunate turn of events, tight timeframe and teething issues, or does it face a long and winding road to recovery?

“We have 13 races and we have done only one,” Moncet said post-event. “The season is quite long and we have a few weeks before Sweden and a few months before Croatia. Thankfully the start of the season is quite slow, but the others we not wait for us, so we will push twice as more than the others.

“We are not that far away. We had limited running time compared to our competitors because we were a bit behind, so it is quite encouraging. The performance is there - we just have to finish the stages. Once we achieve the reliability, we will work on the performance. But reliability is the priority.”

Hyundai is optimistic that it can recover from its problems

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool