Hyundai is yet to commit to the 2026 World Rally Championship, but team principal Cyril Abiteboul says rallying is the «manufacturer’s roots» and he is not «over with rally».

The long-term future of the Korean marque in the WRC is unclear with the brand understood to be gearing up to join the World Endurance Championship with a Hypercar programme in the near future.

Hyundai is one of two full manufacturer teams in the WRC having rejoined the championship for a second spell in 2014, and has gone on to win two manufacturers’ titles in 2019 and 2020.

Speculation over the car maker’s future in the series emerged during Rally Poland last month with Abiteboul unable to confirm the marque’s plans in the WRC beyond 2025.

In Latvia last weekend the former Renault Formula 1 boss told Motorsport.com that he is pushing for Hyundai to continue in the WRC and that news surrounding its 2026 plans will come in the «very near future.»

Abiteboul has been a key player in pushing the FIA to U-turn on its move to change the current Rally1 technical regulations for 2025 and 2026 ahead of all-new rules for 2027.

«We are in rally and we want to make this work, for the rest there is an ongoing process and ongoing investigation. But first and foremost, I want to secure at least one championship, he said.

«We are here next year and then it’s an annual revision of our plans in WRC. The first thing was to get stability in terms of regulations and the next thing is to understand the direction that rally is taking as a sport as a property and making sure that there is still a fit between where Hyundai wants to go in terms of marketing and the sport.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

«I can tell you that I’m pushing in that direction. I’m not letting go. I’m not over with rally. As far as I am concerned, I’m pushing rally to adopt directions that are sensible for Hyundai.

«I believe that this is our roots in motorsport and cutting your root is something you need to be very sensible about doing it’s always a bit dangerous to cut your root. You have seen me and other people from the Hyundai group looking into different disciplines, but no decision is made. We want to make this work.

«There is no need to make a commitment to 2026 yet, but you can expect some clarification about where we stand in the very near future.»

One reason why a Hyundai exit would seem a strange decision is the fact the marque has committed significant resources to improving its i20 N for 2025.

Hyundai had planned to homologate an entirely new car before the FIA’s proposals to change the rules, which it has since U-turned on, forced the team to scrap its plan and resort to only an evolution of its i20 N Rally1 car for next year.

Abiteboul says the team has taken delivery of some of its components for the 2025 upgrades, and work is underway to complete the project ahead of next year. 

«We are now at a point where we are going to take delivery of some of the components of next year’s car, which is a big evolution,» he added.

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

«We are really looking forward to maximising the resources, the focus that we have on that preparation.

«It’s coming together. We have already received the first parts. You will find out soon [what we are doing] with the homologation dossier. There are quite a few changes but it is not the entire programme that we were aiming to do with a new car homologation, it’s a subset of it.

«Hats off to the design office, they have not completed it yet, but they have delivered despite all the unknowns and the very late information provided about the technical content of the regulations.»

The FIA is conducting a review into a “potentially dangerous” incident where an inflatable promotional arch halted Ott Tanak during the World Rally Championship’s visit to Latvia.

Read Also:

The WRC title contender collected a deflated promotional arch that was lying in the road after Toyota’s Elfyn Evans made contact with the structure while recovering from a wild slide moments earlier.

The stage wasn’t red-flagged quickly enough to avoid Tanak’s i20 N becoming entangled in the felled structure. Officials eventually red-flagged the stage to clear the incident and issued nominal times to Tanak, Adrien Fourmaux and Takamoto Katsuta, who were also impacted. 

When television crews spoke to Tanak at the end of the stage, the frustrated driver took aim at race control, saying: “I think this exactly describes how we are in safe hands in terms of race control. Probably they were having a nice meal and good wine when on the cameras you could see the road is blocked and there is a car coming. Well done race control, you are really taking care of us.”

“We are ok but f****** hell, you could see the road was blocked and you keep it running. Hopefully, it was a good wine.”

Ott Tänak, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul called for transparent review of the incident to understand how it can be avoided in the future.

At the end of the rally, the FIA, Rally Latvia organisers and Hyundai released a joint statement confirming that a review is underway and that Tanak has apologised for his comments directed at rally control.

“Following the incident involving Car 8 [Tanak] on Special Stage 14, a thorough review by the FIA is ongoing. The driver, Ott Tanak and team representative met with the FIA representatives on site to review the situation, which all agree was potentially dangerous,” read the statement.

“Discussing the situation, Tanak agreed that his comments following the stage were not in the best interest of the sport, but that they were made in the moments immediately following the incident. He apologised for his comments about Rally Control but welcomed the upcoming review.

“Hyundai Motorsport, the organiser and the FIA are collaborating to better understand the incident and to work together towards the continuous improvement of the safety systems in the sport, which is a critical goal of the FIA.”

Kalle Rovanpera maintained his control of Rally Latvia as the Toyota driver closed in on a dominant World Rally Championship victory on Sunday morning.  

The two-time world champion was unable to relax with Super Sunday points on offer and managed to balance the need for points and to preserve his overall rally lead perfectly.

Rovanpera headed into the final two stages with a 40.3s margin over Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier.

Rally1 rookie Martins Sesks held third [+54.0s] ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak [+1m06.7s] and M-Sport’s full-time driver Adrien Fourmaux [+1m26.6s] .

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans continued to hold sixth [+1m40.7s] from Takamoto Katsuta [+2m02.9s] and championship leader Thierry Neuville [+2m44.0s]. The top 10 was completed by Esapekka Lappi [+3m31.8s] and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster [+4m37.5s].         

Sunday morning began in overcast conditions but once again road order was crucial for posting stage-winning times.

Ogier kicked off the quartet of stages by topping the times in stage 17 [Krogzemji, 18.70km] by 1.4s from rally leader Rovanpera. The time meant Ogier took an early lead in the Super Sunday standings with the extra points on Rovanpera’s mind too despite his now 41.1s rally lead.

“We try to be fast and try to get some points for the team. Toyota has so far the two fastest cars, so all okay,” said Rovanpera.

“We are here to help the team so we need to bring some points on Sunday, personally it’s not so fun when you’re in a good lead and you want to fight for the win, but we can do both.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The overall leaderboard remained largely unchanged as Sesks continued to hold third from a charging Tanak, desperate to salvage Sunday points. After his eventful Saturday, Tanak started the final day with a third-fastest stage time.

Sesks continued to impress to post the fourth-quickest time while title contenders Evans and Neuville clocked identical efforts ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux, who provisionally claimed the final Super Sunday point.

Tanak boosted his Super Sunday hopes by winning stage 18 [Mazilmaja, 13.34km] to sit second in the Sunday classification, 0.9s behind Ogier, who held the provisional seven bonus points.

Tanak took the stage win by 1.2s, with rally leader Rovanpera a further eight tenths back as he held third in the Sunday points.

The remaining Super Sunday positions were occupied by Evans, Sesks, Neuville and Fourmaux.

Oliver Solberg led the WRC2 class by 33.1s from Mikko Heikkila and Sami Pajari.

The crews will repeat the pair of stages which will conclude the rally this afternoon.      

Kalle Rovanpera dominated Saturday’s stages to open up a commanding Rally Latvia lead over Toyota World Rally Championship team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

The reigning world champion set a rapid pace to claim six of the eight stages and transform an overnight 15.7s advantage to a 42.5s lead [18 provisional points] heading into Sunday’s final four stages.

M-Sport’s local star Martins Sesks started Saturday in second but narrowly lost a fight with eight-time world champion Ogier to end the day a highly commendable third [+47.2s – 13 points].

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak survived a strange run-in with a promotional arch to finish fourth [+1m08.0s], bagging 10 provisional championship points. Tanak fared the best of the title contenders as Toyota’s Elfyn Evans reached service in sixth [+1m34.3s – six points], while championship leader Thierry Neuville picked up three points in eighth [+2m33.9s].

M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux completed the day in fifth with Takamoto Katsuta eighth, while Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rounded out the top 10.

Saturday afternoon’s loop followed a similar narrative to the morning with Rovanpera setting a blistering pace at the front.

The Toyota driver set the benchmark time in Stage 13 [Podnieki 10.09km] to claim his ninth stage win of the rally. Rovanpera was 2.6s faster than nearest rival Ogier.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński

Ogier wasn’t happy with his morning loop and was eager to unlock more pace from his GR Yaris. While the Frenchman couldn’t beat his team-mate, he did pip Sesks by 0.2s to increase the gap to the M-Sport Rally1 rookie to 0.8s.

Sesks’ impressive pace offered the Latvian relative breathing space in the form of a 10.4s gap to fourth-placed Tanak.

Fourmaux headed into the stage with only an eight-second margin over Evans in the battle for fifth after losing time to the Welshman across the morning. A set-up change on his Puma at midday service provided more traction helping the Ford driver to a time 2.7s faster than Evans.

Fourmaux’s team-mate Munster was fortunate to survive a wild moment over a crest that ripped the front splitter and arch from his Puma.

Stage 14 provided one of the most bizarre moments of the WRC season when an inflatable arch was felled, which brought out the red flags.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans ran wide at the right-hander before the arch, collecting a couple of advertising hoardings before returning to the road after clipping the arch.

“A bit of a silly mistake. I tried not to be too aggressive loading the car and got caught out,” said Evans.

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Tanak was the next car to arrive at the section, where he collected the felled arch, which draped his i20 N. Officials quickly red-flagged the stage while Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja attempted to remove the arch from the car.

Tanak, sitting in fourth, was clearly angered by the strange incident and took aim at race control.

“I think this exactly describes how we are in safe hands in terms of race control. Probably they were having a nice meal and good wine when on the cameras you could see the road is blocked and there is a car coming. Well done race control, you are really taking care of us,» said Tanak on the television broadcast.

“We are ok but f****** hell, you could see the road was blocked and you keep it running. Hopefully, it was a good wine.”

Tanak was awarded a nominal second fastest time while Katsuta and Fourmaux, who were also delayed by the red flag, were handed a notional time.

Rally leader Rovanpera won the restarted test by 3.9s to extend his lead over Ogier to 41.3s.

Ogier issued a response to his team-mate on the penultimate stage of the day to take 0.3s from the Finn and win the short 6.64km gravel blast.

Tanak took 0.5s from Sesks to apply more pressure on the Latvian as the gap to third was reduced to 6.3s.

Rovanpera wrapped up the day with a stage win on the asphalt streets of host city Liepaja by 0.1s from Katsuta.

The technical test provided another wild moment for Tanak, who hit a hay bale after his i20 N’s driveshaft broke. Luckily, it didn’t prevent him from reaching the service park.

Oliver Solberg led the WRC2 class into the final day from Mikko Heikkila and Sami Pajari with four Sunday stages remaining.