Hyundai will delay the debut of its 2025 WRC automotive until Monte Carlo

Hyundai will delay the debut of its improved World Rally Championship challenger after deciding to field its 2024-spec automotive on the season opener in Monte Carlo next month.

The Korean manufacturer had planned to homologate a virtually all-new version of its i20 N Rally1 for next yr before plans were abandoned attributable to uncertainty over the 2025 regulations.

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After the FIA ​​modified the technical regulations for 2025 following objections from teams, Hyundai managed to salvage a few of its i20 N development plans with an agreement to submit 2026 development jokers to be used within the 2025 campaign.

This means the team has 4 jokers, which they’ve used to finish a variety of updates to their automotive which have yet to be revealed.

Although Hyundai has stepped up testing and development of the evolution of its i20 N in recent months, the team has opted to not field the automotive at January's Monte Carlo curtain-raiser for drivers Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanaka and latest signing Adrien Fourmaux.

Hyundai began this yr's campaign with Neuville taking his second victory in Monte Carlo.

Cyril Abiteboul, team principal of the Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

“We have put in a lot of work and we still believe that the car has a lot of potential, but obviously we have a very limited mileage in terms of the mileage that we can do or that has been done in the car,” Hyundai Abiteboul team principal Cyril told Motorsport.com.

“The key query might be what might be the tipping point where this automotive becomes a more controllable platform than the present automotive? It's probably not a brand new automotive, we call it an “evo” automotive.

“We are within the means of determining when the tipping point might be and based on that we’ll determine when the perfect technique to introduce the automotive might be. It won't be in Monte Carlo.

“We will use the present automotive in Monte Carlo. This competition is a really special challenge and also you don't win it on pace alone, so we expect it's higher to maintain driving a automotive that we understand and know the way to arrange, and which also won the event this yr. “