Hyundai insists it has made the “better choice” to contest next week’s Safari Rally Kenya without its much anticipated 2025 car update package that debuted in Sweden last month.
The South Korean manufacturer will head to Africa for the toughest event on the WRC calendar with a trio of i20 N Rally1 cars competing in the specification that ended the 2024 campaign (minus the hybrid unit and with the air restrictor changes as per the 2025 technical regulations).
Hyundai spent much of last year working on a significant upgrade package for 2025, utilising four homologation jokers to improve its i20 N for drivers Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and new signing Adrien Fourmaux. The improvements centred around a revised suspension layout and weight reduction.
This package made its debut on Sweden’s snow stages last month with team principal Cyril Abiteboul reasonably happy with the performance despite the upgrades being primarily designed for gravel and asphalt rallies.
However, a combination of factors has prompted the team to put those updates on ice for the visit to Kenya next week, before returning to its full 2025 package. Abiteboul is, however, confident that the decision won’t have an impact on the team’s performance.
“[The car we will use] will be the end-of-2024 specification, so it is not the spec that ran in Kenya last year because obviously we had a number of issues after Kenya particularly around transmission [that were addressed], so that car is not what will run in Kenya this year,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.
“It is a decision we have made to optimise the availability of parts as we had a very busy winter as we got the 2025 specification very late and that made it very marginal to make it with the freight [to Kenya]. It was a bit of an optimisation of the overall operation that led to this decision.
“We don’t think that in terms of performance there will be any deficit or make a big difference. It is all about reliability and sign-off and mileage [on the parts] and overall the choice to run the car as it was at the end of 2024 was better than running the 2025 car.
“There was nothing wrong with [the updates in Sweden] but frankly we didn’t really design those changes for Sweden for snow, we designed those changes for the conditions we are facing this year, which is mainly gravel and a bit of Tarmac.
“But if you look at Thierry and Adrien, by the end of the weekend it is very clear that the performance of the car was there or thereabouts.”
While Hyundai’s WRC challenger will be without its 2025 updates, it will feature a new upgrade specific for the rigours of Kenya’s notoriously tough gravel roads.
The team has developed a revised snorkel. Snorkels are devices that protrude from the bonnet of the car designed to protect the engine from ingesting water or dust, which may affect combustion and can even severely damage the engine. It is particularly effective at the Safari Rally, which features thick fesh-fesh sand and deep water splashes.
“We will have a better example of the one we used last year - [last year’s snorkel] was maybe a bit basic, so this also shows some of the homework that we have completed,” added Abiteboul.
Homework addressed in challenging pre-event test
Kenya has proven to be a particularly challenging rally for Hyundai, as it has only recorded one podium finish from its four attempts, when Tanak finished third in 2021. Chief rival Toyota has won every edition since its return to the calendar in 2021, scoring a dominant 1-2-3-4 in both 2022 and 2023.
Reliability issues have largely been Hyundai’s downfall but the team has focused on addressing those concerns after each visit to Kenya. The problem solving has continued in the lead up to next week’s third round of the championship following a challenging pre-event test, held in difficult conditions, that highlighted an electrical frailty.
“Hopefully we have made a step but what I know for sure is that every issue we faced last year in Kenya has been addressed - but each time we go to Kenya we seem to unearth new issues,” said Abiteboul.
“We actually had quite an eventful pre-event test for Kenya where we saw something that was not exactly at the level we want, particularly if it is raining a lot.
“The pre-event test was challenging for the team and I have to give credit to the team for doing a very strong job to give maximum preparation to the drivers.
“But it shows that it is not an easy challenge. I prefer to find these reliability issues in the test rather than during the rally. We were talking about doing our homework, but that box is ticked.”
Safari Rally Kenya begins next Thursday with the first of 21 stages.
