Hyundai defend choice for using older car for 2025 Safari Rally

Chasing their maiden Safari Rally victory, Hyundai Motorsport are ready to trade outright performance for improved reliability on the FIA World Rally Championship’s African outing slated for Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 March.

Former world champion Ott Tänak offered an insight into Hyundai’s strategy for the third round when he told the media he expected to drive a slightly older specification of the i20 N Rally1.

“We’re going to use the old car,” the Estonian, who secured Hyundai’s only Safari podium with third place in 2021, told WRC.com. “Reliability is the priority on the Safari, and we know it’s there with the 2024 car.”

What will Harambee Stars' philosophy be under McCarthy?

Defending world champion Thierry Neuville added more detail to the thinking about not using the new-for-Sweden i20.

The Belgian said, “We couldn’t test enough on rough roads, and we know that the other car is strong on that side, so I think the team preferred not to take any risk on that.”

Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul admitted his squad needed to halt rival team Toyota’s perfect start to the year.

“The championship is not starting in the right way for us,” said Abiteboul. “However, it is clear that we do not need big improvements to turn things around.

We need to focus on having a clean rally, starting in Safari Rally, which will be a great opportunity to do better than the previous years there.”

Neuville’s return to the podium at Rally Sweden had reinforced Hyundai’s ability to take the fight to rival manufacturer Toyota, according to Abiteboul.

Junior Starlets’ journey to Morocco gets underway in Uganda

After a challenging Rallye Monte-Carlo, Neuville emerged as the closest Hyundai challenger to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta at round two in Umeå. The Belgian finished just 11.9sec off the victory, with team-mate Tänak a further 4.9sec behind.

Hyundai's Tanak (2021) and Ford's Adrien Fourmaux (2024) are the only non-Toyota drivers to make the podium since Safari's return to the FIA WRC series in 2021.