Hyundai has tested the upgrades for the 2025 WRC car under competitive conditions: These are the areas of the i20 N Rally1 that are to be improved
The 2024 WRC season has not yet been decided, but Hyundai is already working hard on the further development of the i20 N Rally1 for the 2025 World Rally Championship. After closed-door testing, the planned improvements were tested for the first time in competitive conditions last weekend at the La Nucia-Mediterraneo Rally.
Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen used the national rally in Spain not only to prepare for the WRC finale in Japan (November 21-24), but also to compare the upgrades. While Neuville drove a car with the new features, Mikkelsen drove an i20 N Rally1 in the 2024 version.
“For Mikkelsen, it was preparation for Japan and for Thierry, we are looking at a few things for next year,” Hyundai WRC program manager Christian Loriaulx confirmed to Autosport.
Loriaux remained cautious overall, but provided a small insight into Hyundai’s development program for the next two years. “We have submitted the homologation papers and are still in the testing phase, but we have four wild cards for next year and 2026. I would say that we are considering some reasonable changes, but I can’t say any more.”
“We know we will achieve a good weight reduction, but we need to work on reliability,” said Loriaux, naming specific areas of work. ”We tested under very tough conditions and so far it has been reliable. Now we are working on the set-up and will see how it goes.”
Hyundai had planned to homologate a virtually all-new version of the i20 N Rally1 for next year, before the plans were scrapped due to uncertainty over the 2025 regulations.
After the FIA made an about-face on the 2025 technical regulations, as the teams had requested, Hyundai was able to salvage some of its development plans for the i20 N by agreeing to bring forward its 2026 development jokers so that it could use them during the 2025 season.
