Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal, Andrea Adamo, is a busy man, and while overseeing the reigning WRC champions is difficult at the best of times, the past weeks have been even more so.
Since travelling back from a difficult Rally Mexico, the entirety of the Hyundai Motorsport workforce are voluntarily working from home to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Despite no confirmed cases in the team, the company prioritised their employees’ health and safety in the midst of this worldwide pandemic.
“The most important thing to say is that everyone is OK, or at least as much as possible in the circumstances,” Adamo explained from his home in Germany.
“Our company is located in Bavaria, which has been locked down since late last week. We have been obliged to limit our activities, but in actual fact we had already taken some steps prior to this to react to this fast-changing situation.
“The health and welfare of our staff is the top priority.”
There are over 250 Hyundai Motorsport staff.
Despite not only being a large workforce, Adamo’s team is also multi-cultural, making things challenging.
“With over 250 staff from 27 different nations, we wanted to give people the chance to get back home before the situation worsened. We took steps to create a work from home culture, allowing us to manage as much as we could the engineering activities.
“We are trying to get the best out of this situation.
“Around the world, there are bigger problems to manage than motorsport in this moment, so we just try to think about that and keep our priorities in line,” he adds.
“Luckily we are living at a time where communication through virtual tools is very advanced and efficient.
“We call meetings from time to time; we have access to the servers, and we try to keep each other updated. It is far from an optimal situation, but it is also far from the biggest problem the world is facing currently.
Hyundai's Dani Sordo in action at Rally Mexico. Photo: Fabien Dufour
“We have to stay relaxed and be ready for when things will start again, which they will,” he assured.
As the 2020 World Rally Championship takes a back seat for now, he also had the chance to look back on the season so far and the unique nature of the three round series.
“My main reflection is that 2020 WRC had already been a strange one. The only event to run, let me say properly, was Monte-Carlo,” he explained.
“We then had Sweden, on roads that were quite indescribable, and then Mexico which was cut short under the shadow of the outbreak.
“Looking back at those events, I can’t say that I am happy… from these events, we get all the motivation we need to buck up. We have to respect our board who is allowing us to compete in the championship, and to be professional. We have to focus and understand what we can make better,” he concluded.
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