Hyundai is yet to commit to the 2026 World Rally Championship, but team principal Cyril Abiteboul says rallying is the manufacturer’s “roots” and he is not “over with rally”.
The long-term future of the South Korean marque in the WRC is unclear with the brand understood to be gearing up to join the World Endurance Championship with a Hypercar programme in the near future.
Hyundai is one of two full manufacturer teams in the WRC having rejoined the championship for a second spell in 2014, and has gone on to win two manufacturers’ titles in 2019 and 2020.
Speculation over the car maker’s future in the series emerged during Rally Poland last month with Abiteboul unable to confirm the marque’s plans in the WRC beyond 2025.
In Latvia last weekend the former Renault Formula 1 boss told Autosport that he is pushing for Hyundai to continue in the WRC and that news surrounding its 2026 plans will come in the “very near future”.
Abiteboul has been a key player in pushing the FIA to U-turn on its move to change the current Rally1 technical regulations for 2025 and 2026 ahead of all-new rules for 2027.
“We are in rally and we want to make this work, for the rest there is an ongoing process and ongoing investigation,” he said. “But, first and foremost, I want to secure at least one championship.
“We are here next year and then it's an annual revision of our plans in WRC. The first thing was to get stability in terms of regulations and the next thing is to understand the direction that rally is taking as a sport as a property and making sure that there is still a fit between where Hyundai wants to go in terms of marketing and the sport.
“I can tell you that I'm pushing in that direction. I'm not letting go. I'm not over with rally. As far as I am concerned, I'm pushing rally to adopt directions that are sensible for Hyundai.
“I believe that this is our roots in motorsport and cutting your root is something you need to be very sensible about doing - it's always a bit dangerous to cut your root. You have seen me and other people from the Hyundai group looking into different disciplines, but no decision is made. We want to make this work.
“There is no need to make a commitment to 2026 yet, but you can expect some clarification about where we stand in the very near future.”
One reason why a Hyundai exit would seem a strange decision is the fact the marque has committed significant resource into improving its i20 N for 2025.
Hyundai had planned to homologate an entire new car before the FIA’s proposals to change the rules, which it has since U-turned on, forced the team to scrap its plan and resort to only an evolution of its i20 N Rally1 car for next year.
Abiteboul says the team has taken delivery of some of its components for the 2025 upgrades, and work is under way to complete the project ahead of next year.
“We are now at a point where we are going to take delivery of some of the components of next year's car, which is a big evolution,” he added.
“We are really looking forward to maximising the resources, the focus that we have on that preparation.
“It's coming together. We have already received the first parts. You will find out soon [what we are doing] with the homologation dossier. There are quite a few changes but it is not the entire programme that we were aiming to do with a new car homologation, it's a subset of it.
“Hats off to the design office, they have not completed it yet, but they have delivered despite all the unknowns and the very late information provided about the technical content of the regulations.”
