Sweden WRC podium “achievable” after Monte bug fixes
Hyundai believes that a podium in Rally Sweden is “achievable” after working straight out to address the reliability issues that plagued it during the Monte Carlo World Rally Championship season opener.
The champions of the 2019 and 2020 WRC manufacturers left Monte Carlo facing a myriad of problems to fix on their all-new i20 N Rally1 machine after a nightmare start on the new hybrid.
Thierry Neuville was the only Hyundai to reach the finish line in a low sixth place after recovering from a broken right-hand suspension and handling problems. Teammate Ott Tanak withdrew after slipping into a rock wall, after choosing to run slick tires on snow, while Oliver Solberg withdrew on the last day due to illness triggered by inhaling fumes that had filled his cockpit. two days.
Hyundai’s deputy team director Julien Moncet told Motorsport.com after Monte Carlo that his team would “double their efforts” to close the gap to their Toyota and M-Sport-Ford rivals and said ahead of this weekend’s second round of the season on the Swedish snow as it has worked tirelessly to solve a “long list” of problems.
Although Moncet is cautious, there is still work to be done to improve the i20 N, the team’s preparations have received a boost from a positive hassle-free test in Finland earlier this month that exceeded expectations.
After a detailed review of the team’s Alzenau base, Moncet is convinced that significant progress has been made and believes that Hyundai should be in a position to fight for a podium place.
“We focused mostly on reliability issues – this will definitely help us take a step forward in Rally Sweden,” Moncet told Motorsport.com.
“We really focused on the installation during the test and we did not have too many reliability problems.
“We have had to work hard to find solutions. I think that for us it has exceeded our expectations.
“We had some time between Monte Carlo and Sweden, but everything could not be changed due to things related to homologation or things that need time and more evaluation. I think we did what we could to prepare in the best possible way for Sweden .
“The only rest day we had was the day trip back to Alzenau [from Monte Carlo]. As soon as we were back, all the guys based at the factory were already in full swing.
“We had a series of meetings to work on our main issues that can be linked to the car, the organization, the communication or whatever. We tried to take care of all the little things.
The first week was really intense when it came to meetings to try to list and prioritize all issues, because obviously the list was quite long.
“Even with the best will in the world, you can not do everything before Sweden, so we had to prioritize and I think we did quite well. There are no dramatic changes, it is mostly the same car but we have tried to sort out all the small problems.
“The goal I always used to say is to win, and I will be happy if we win, but the first goal will be to get the three cars to the finish and I think we can reasonably aim for a podium.
“I think this is possible and the car seems to be performing well in this installation window.”
Among the issues that the team believes they have solved are the fumes that penetrated Solberg’s car in Monte Carlo and made the Swede dizzy – which contributed to an off.
“I hope so, otherwise I will definitely not be happy,” Moncet added when asked if the problem had been fixed.
“This was one of the main issues we worked on. We did some analysis to understand where it came from and how we were going to solve it. I think we have done our homework and it should be solved.”
Rally Sweden begins with the first race on Friday morning.