Hyundai has presented an updated engine at the Rally of Portugal with the aim of reducing the gap with its rivals in the World Rally Championship (WRC), Toyota, which has won all five races of the season so far.
The Korean brand has struggled to extract consistent performance from its i20 N Rally1, and therefore has worked on technical improvements. The first updates focused on the dampers, geometry, and differential interaction, which were introduced last month in Croatia, without needing to use a homologation joker.
Recently, the team has confirmed that it has used its latest engine homologation for a change intended to provide a slight performance improvement. According to sports director Andrew Wheatley, this change should offset a loss of power caused by a recent modification in fuel specifications.
Wheatley mentioned that a small modification has been made to the intake system to increase power. Moreover, he acknowledged that regulations are strict and achieving significant improvements is complicated.
Expectations of Hyundai drivers
After a disappointing performance against Toyota in the Canary Islands, Hyundai is confident about being more competitive on gravel. During Wednesday’s shakedown, two of its cars occupied two of the top four positions, with Thierry Neuville setting the best time, 0.3s ahead of Sami Pajari from Toyota.
Despite the good expectations, Neuville warned that shakedown results do not always reflect true performance during the rally. According to him, the weather conditions over the weekend, with rain anticipated, could affect vehicle performance.
In this regard, Adrien Fourmaux, who will be driving one of the Hyundais, has shown optimism, noting that preparation has been excellent and that they felt fast during the pre-tests. At the same time, Dani Sordo, with seven podiums in the rally, expressed his satisfaction in applying the improvements to the vehicle to achieve a good result.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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