Hyundai in a squeeze over 2018 line-up
Hyundai team principal Michel Nandan says his 2018 driver line-up remains open and the team’s three factory i20 Coupe WRCS will be shared on merit – despite the expectation that Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen will start all 13 events.
Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo were contracted for every rally this season, but both will miss one before the end of the year. That possibility remains for all four i20 drivers next season.
“Yes, Thierry [Neuville] and Andreas [Mikkelsen] have the contract which says they do all the rallies,” Nandan said, “but everybody has this contract. We could not run four cars next year because of the budget, but maybe on a few events. So, it’s sure with our four drivers we will have to share one car with two drivers.”
Paddon returned to the series after being dropped for the last round in Spain and the Kiwi ended a “challenging” event in eighth place. Asked if he felt Paddon’s struggle in Wales was linked to being benched for the previous event, Nandan replied: “Some other drivers were not doing all the rallies and we can find thousands of excuses, but it was more confidence he was missing.”
Paddon said: “It’s been a tough weekend, but we’ll reset and go to the event closest to home and go again. I struggled with following everybody else’s set-up on the first day, but once we had the car as we liked it on Saturday and Sunday, the confidence was better.”