Hyundai Motorsport today revealed its New Generation i20 WRC during a launch event for media and guests at the team’s factory in Alzenau. The car will be used in our third season of WRC competition by drivers Dani Sordo, Hayden Paddon and Thierry Neuville. The venue for the launch was significant as it will soon be Hyundai Motorsport’s customer racing headquarters. From this base we will supply teams around the world with our new R5 rally car that is also based on the New Generation i20.
The reveal marks a new chapter in Hyundai Motorsport history as we build on two successful WRC seasons and approach our third. In 2014, we took the original i20 WRC to an historic one-two finish in Germany. In 2015, we scored four podiums and finished third in the Manufacturers’ Championship after a season-long battle for second place. 2015 marked the start of a year-long test and development programme for this new car, based on the road-going New Generation Hyundai i20. The new WRC car has already been through 8,000km of testing and has already proven to be quicker than the previous model, with the team’s drivers also praising improved drivability.
The new car is a product of Hyundai Motorsport evolution since 2013. Our young team has already established itself in the WRC community and looks to continue this in 2016 by fighting at the front at every event in a renewed Championship challenge. Hyundai Motorsport will enter three cars into every 2016 WRC round. Dani, Hayden and Thierry will take on a full season that features a new event in China and finale in Australia.
They will share the #3, #4 and #20 numbers and this ability to change will provide us with a flexible strategy. Hayden will drive the 2015 model for the Rallye Monte-Carlo season opener, which he hasn’t contested before, then join Dani and Thierry with a new car from Rally Sweden.
Today’s launch also showed the new livery for the New Generation i20 WRC. Shell and Mobis both stand out on the new design as our title partners. They continue to provide the name for our two team entries Hyundai Shell World Rally Team and Hyundai Mobis World Rally Team. We also bring back rising Dutch star Kevin Abbring as our test driver. On top of his development work on the 2017 WRC car and the upcoming R5, Kevin will take part in a number of 2016 rounds in a fourth car. The R5 customer motorsport project sees a development phase in early 2016 and homologation in mid-2016, with opening plan to start taking orders in the second half of 2016. Our immediate focus is of course on January’s season opener at Rallye Monte-Carlo, where the New Generation i20 WRC will be taken into the fierce contest for the 2016 Championship.
