There had been doubts over its speed on fast gravel rallies, but Hyundai is confident it can challenge for podiums in Finland this week and at the remaining World Rally Championship rounds.
Fast gravel roads is where the Hyundai i20 Rally1 car has spent a fair chunk of its testing and development, with Finland the location of Hyundai’s permanent test base since 2022. However, this year the team opted to switch its test base to the south of France, which offers both gravel and asphalt roads to develop its car.
While the i20 N Rally1 has struggled on asphalt this year, its key strength on rough gravel has remained, headlined by a victory in Portugal and a second place in Greece. But there were some concerns that the car may have lost ground on fast gravel given the development focus has shifted away from that surface.
But third and fourth place finishes scored by Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville respectively on fast gravel in Estonia two weeks ago has the team confident its package can challenge for podiums on all types of gravel.
“The team performance in Estonia showed that the hard work done by the engineering team over the last three months has produced the results we need to be competitive across the different gravel events remaining in the 2026 season,” said Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley.
“There was a small potential opportunity of doubt because we moved the test base from Finland to south of France, and we knew that the consequence of that might be that we lost a little bit of speed here. But we managed to basically keep the same speed that we had in the past. That’s quite positive and we can build from that.
Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai
“There was every reason to be confident that we can go forward towards the end of the year now with at least a strong feeling that we can be in the right window for performance.
“Estonia features long, high-speed flat-out sections as well as narrow connecting roads, and to be competitive on both is encouraging. Finland is similar in nature, although not exactly the same, but despite the home advantage for Toyota, our performance in Estonia showed that we have the outright pace to challenge for the podium.”
Finland will again offer Hyundai a strong starting road position with its crews starting sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. However, the team will be up against five Toyota crews that are all capable of victory.
Estonia provided Fourmaux a much-needed confidence boost after securing a first podium since Kenya in March. The Frenchman believes another podium visit could be on the horizon in Finland after both he and Neuville found themselves firmly in the victory hunt last year before suffering punctures.
“The podium we achieved in Estonia gives us confidence heading into Finland. Last year we were fighting for second and third with Thierry until we both suffered punctures after hitting the same rock on Saturday, so I believe we can be strong this year as well. We have a good road position, completed a positive test in Finland, and we’ll be pushing hard. I’m confident we can fight for another podium,” said Fourmaux.
Neuville headed to Finland a week earlier than his team-mate to contest a national rally to aid his Rally Finland preparations, but his outing was cut short by a technical issue.
The 2024 world champion added: “We learned a lot in Estonia and still have a little room for improvement, so we’ll be working to make the car even stronger ahead of Finland. Experience always helps, but many of the drivers know these roads extremely well and have the advantage of local knowledge. Our goal is the same as it was in Estonia: to fight for victory, be in the battle from the very first stage, stay out of trouble and have a perfect weekend.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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