Paddon believes Hyundai’s Finland setup issues can’t be cured this year

Hayden Paddon says the grip issues Hyundai suffered at Rally Finland can’t be cured this season.

Both the Kiwi and teammate Thierry Neuville have struggled on low-grip stages in the New Generation i20 WRC, evidence of which comes with their increase in pace on the second loop of gravel stages.

Paddon said: “We looked at the data on the event and we changed springs and worked on the set-up, but it was still really frustrating – the grip just wasn’t there. In places like Argentina and Poland it wasn’t so bad, the roads were a bit softer and there was generally an edge to the road that you could use to bounce off. In Finland there wasn’t much we could do.

“It looks like this is a geometry thing, something we can’t really sort out with this car. We’re probably going to have to wait until the 2017 car to get to the bottom of this one.”