Hyundai Motorsport confirms driver line-up for WRC season
After entering two Hyundai i20 WRC cars for Rallye Monte-Carlo later this month, Hyundai Motorsport will switch to a three-car entry for Rally Sweden in February to help raise its game in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).
Belgian crew Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul alongside Spaniards Dani Sordo and Marc Mart� will pilot the #7 and #8 Hyundai Shell World Rally Team cars. Meanwhile, Rally Sweden will mark Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon's first event of the year, behind the wheel of the #20 Hyundai i20 WRC with co-driver John Kennard.
With a strong trio of drivers, Hyundai Motorsport aims to use all of the experience and information gathered from its debut season in 2014 to make improvements at each rally on comparative performance levels and to get closer to the leading WRC competitors.
Team principal, Michel Nandan, said: "As we saw last year, having three cars on WRC events is very positive and helps us to develop our Hyundai i20 WRC more rapidly. Overall, I think we have a good line-up for Sweden with Thierry, Dani and Hayden. Despite our drivers not being surface specialists, they have proven to be consistent in Sweden in the past and I'm sure we will see some interesting performances from them this year. Thierry and Dani had a pre-event test in December for Sweden, which helped them to find a reliable set-up for the event; we know it's a tough event and we want to be as prepared as possible."