Comment: Driver changes suggest unrest at Hyundai Motorsport

27th May 2019, 9:45am
by

There is a new spirit at Hyundai Motorsport since the arrival of Andrea Adamo as the replacement team chief for Michel Nandan, and it is unsettling. Right from his arrival at the championship presentation in Birmingham in January, Adamo's influence has been evident. Immediately the media was not given technical information about the team’s development on their cars, though new aero changes are expected in time for Finland. Requests for specification of the official titles of the top personnel have been declined. The arrival of Sebastien Loeb as a part-time WRC driver has led to late driver nomination decisions for events, starting with the offer of a one-event programme for Hayden Paddon, which he declined.

Sebastien Loeb is replacing Andreas Mikkelsen in Portugal.

Under pressure to produce a championship winning attack on the WRC manufacturer’s title, driver line-ups suggest knee-jerk policies and are declared piecemeal, sometimes including Dani Sordo. The decision of Mikkelsen’s replacement by Loeb in Portugal came three weeks after finishing second in Argentina. Now, Hyundai’s attention focuses on the rest of the season. Currently Hyundai is leading Toyota by 29 points, but Neuville is only third in the drivers’ series, behind Ogier and Tanak. Loeb is contractually committed to entering only one more event this year and declines to compete in Finland as it is family holiday time. It seems that Hyundai Motorsport is not a happy place at the moment.

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Comment: Driver changes suggest unrest at Hyundai Motorsport

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Comment: Driver changes suggest unrest at Hyundai Motorsport

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