The Curious Case of Hyundai in the WRC

I would like you to cast your mind back to 2003. After 3 seasons of promise and much potential, the Hyundai works WRC team (run by British team, MSD) looked finally poised to deliver what they had always threatened. Results.

Yet, it was common knowledge that the team had an extremely basic budget that season and this really stifled their efforts. Instead of moving forwards, they fell further behind. The only promising event that season was New Zealand, with Freddy Loix set for a great result until...he crashed. As per usual for the likeable Belgian.

It was with a whimper then, that Hyundai withdrew at the end of the 2003 season, although really it felt like they did that in 2002. It was often joked that the Hyundai CEO never even knew what the WRC was. It wouldn’t have been so surprising if that were to be true.

Pretty much ever since, whenever someone mutes a manufacturer returning to the sport, Hyundai was near the top of that list. To me this always seem strange. Firstly because they only ever seemed to care for 2 out of their 3 years previous and also due to the Kia brand being the one that is meant to have “sporty pretensions”.

Yet, fast forward 9 years to the Geneva Motor Show in 2012 and Hyundai are at it again. The i20 will be the weapon of choice and this time they are serious. So we were told.

There is no doubt that the i20 WRC looks the part. Those spoilers, skirts and air intakes transform a humdrum Koren hatchback into something of real aggression. They are to be a real works outfit too (a scarce thing in this day and age) with initial design and development in Korea, followed by the operation being run from a base in Germany.

Hooray. A nice car, a works team and no doubt the budget to compete on a competitive level. Lets all forget their previous efforts and eagerly await the 2014 stage debut.

Only, pardon me for being a little pessimistic, but something seems a little amiss.

Firstly, apart from the initial launch, it has been eerily quiet. No one has seen the team testing. No one has heard from the people involved. In fact, nobody seems know who the team is! Many have linked Petter Solberg with the Hyundai team to test the car this year and compete next. But this is nothing more than a pipe dream at present. The great man himself was quoted directly only this last week when speaking to the self-proclaimed Voice of Rally, Colin Clark. See the Tweet below:

"Petter [Solberg] told me yesterday he has had absolutely no communications with Hyundai. Can't find anyone who's working the project!"

Oh dear. But this is early days, right? It is far too early to judge. But lets look at the car in question, the i20. It was originally launched at the tail end of 2008, which means by the time 2014 starts, it would be knocking on 6 years old and in Hyundai maths, that means it will be replaced right around the time Monte Carlo kicks off. So why choose now as the time to launch a programme? Or why not use the newer Kia Rio which will have a longer shelf life, is part of the younger Kia brand and a model that could do with a kick up the backside.

Then, 2 days ago, this video appeared on the internet:

Seems quite normal at first glance. A gaggle of Hyundai engineers shaking down their new i20 WRC car. Or are they? Yes, they are. Or maybe not? Certainly, whether it was meant to be the case or not, the video has certainly caused plenty of discussion on the internet and has stolen some of the VW launch party limelight.

Lets first of all look at the source. It is not Hyundai themselves that have released the footage. It has been uploaded to the YouTube channel by the name of Vadim Ovsiankin. Google that name, and you find very little, but a Twitter account by the same name (37 followers, mainly Russian in language) states that the man in question is a motoring journalist. The same goes for the YouTube channel description. So far, there are many car related videos all of a fairly questionable quality.

However, this seems to fit in well with the lack of finesse to the WRC video in question. There is also a video of a ride in the brand new, yet to be revealed, Kia C’eed GT on the same channel. So, clearly there are contacts within the Hyundai/Kia organisation. This adds credence to the WRC footage. The reason for the scrutiny is twofold.

Firstly, no one from Hyundai themselves has spoken very much, if at all, about the project. Thus, why would they let a little-known YouTuber ride shotgun in their top secret project. Secondly, the audio on the video sounds very odd. It’s as if the gear ratios of the car are incredibly short or the sound is dubbed over the top (although the sound does match the revs indicated). There are exterior images, but not moving film of the car in action, mixed together with the onboard video, which again seems a little suspect.

Not only that, but the video description makes extremely bold claims about their budget for their rally project to be in the region of 60-70 million euros. Many respected rally people on Twitter have debunked the video as a fake, including Colin Clark, Andrew Coley and others.

@ryan_champion I dismissed it as a fake Ryan! You think it looks right from the inside? Just wonder why they put such low quality vid out?
— Colin Clark (@voiceofrally) December 10, 2012

One primary reason is that the car on display at recent motor shows has blacked-out windows and didn’t appear to be anything more than a road car with a WRC frock on. However, in Hyundai’s previous official teaser trailer, it is clear the car runs and is 4 wheel drive (40seconds in). Another area of investigation appears to be the interior of the car, but all you need to do is see the interior of a road going i20 on the Hyundai website and compare to see that the dashboard shown on the video is that of a race prepped (or at-least stripped) i20.

The sound however, remains a bit of a mystery. As does the origin of the clip, plus the silence of the company. The man driving it certainly seems happy that he is being filmed, which doesn’t seem to fit with the secrecy involved. One point that seems to be glossed over is that the uploader mentions in the video description that many other journalists were there too. This could be the key. What if it was a real event, but the overly-keen budding journo broke a NDA by jumping the gun and getting an exclusive scoop? In a month or two time, will magazines and websites write about passenger rides in Hyundai’s new WRC challenger?

Either way, it highlights the strange approach Hyundai are taking to their re-entry into the World Rally Championship. The real question here is not the reliability of the video, but are Hyundai finally willing to support a concerted effort to win the title and do they have a firm understanding of what it takes to do so? At this moment in time, I remain to be convinced.

Update 1: Uh-oh...

Something going on at Hyundai, but unclear what! Hearing a component supplier was due to deliver WRC spec parts but order changed to R5 spec
— Colin Clark (@voiceofrally) December 10, 2012

Update 2: Intriguing...
If you do a bit of digging around on the Hyundai website, you will come across this job listing: It is for a "General Affairs Manager" to, and I quote, "In order to further extend our World Rally Championship activities in Alzenau (near Hanau)." [Germany, near-ish Frankfurt. It is also one of the few places where you cannot use Google Street View. Spooky.] Posted on the official Hyundai Global website on 12/11/2012. With this in mind, could it be that we simply haven't heard anything because they simply haven't recruited anybody into their EU WRC programme. This would seem to suggest so. It would certainly be difficult without someone to "Manage the overall administration of the company" and "Advise the Management to support meeting business goals and objectives".

Update 3: Take this with a pinch of salt...
Swedish rally news website Ericsson Motorsport are claiming Kris Nissen will be the man to lead the campaign. Well, he's certainly Scandinavian (Danish) and free, after leaving VW Motorsport earlier this year (No Kris, Sainz will not return to rallying and no, Vettel will not drive the Polo either..). The article also goes on to say that Jari Ketomaa could be the test driver. Take this as you will. This is a rumour at best. Sounds like an educated guess to me however.