A matter of hours after finishing fourth at Rally Spain, Ott Tanak announced that he’d exercised an option in his deal to end his contract with Hyundai a year early. It is a bold move from the 2019 world champion and one that is set to trigger a number of potential driver line-up changes in the service park.
The background to Tanak’s bombshell announcement
Before assessing the make up of the 2023 field it is pertinent to understand how this situation has unfolded. Tanak’s WRC future has been uncertain for a matter of months despite holding a contract for 2023 with the South Korean marque.
Tanak made it clear in his announcement on Sunday night that his departure is a personal decision. The 35-year-old’s exit doesn’t come as a complete surprise given his growing discontent that has been visible on several occasions this season. It is fair that frustrations were evident back in 2021 after reliability issues stymied his title efforts.
Hyundai by its own admission has been months behind its WRC rivals Toyota and M-Sport-Ford with the development of its new-for-2022 i20 N machine. It’s birth wasn’t helped by a winter of upheaval that saw team boss Andrea Adamo, who enticed Tanak to Hyundai in 2020, leave in December. The departure created a lack of leadership during a critical period, and to this point the team is yet to formally announce a new team principal. Instead, power train boss Julien Moncet was installed as the team’s deputy team director and de facto leader.
When the i20 N burst onto the scene in Monte Carlo it was far from a finished product. It was unreliable and struggling to match the GR Yaris and Puma counterparts. To Hyundai’s credit it has managed to transform its i20 N into a winning machine, with Tanak taming the car to record victories in Sardinia, Finland and Belgium. However, a series of reliability issues have proven to be the i20 N’s Achilles heel that has left Tanak frustrated.
Tanak has been openly critical of not only his equipment but of the team’s management, stating that Moncet shouldn’t become the team boss following his win at Ypres in August.
“He [Julien] is a great guy doing the engine, he’s been always an engine guy and obviously Hyundai has a great engine so that’s what he should be doing in my opinion,” he said when asked if Moncet should become team principal.
“The rest, it’s up to the management to work out how we could continue. The potential in the car is huge, they’ve done a great job first…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsport.com – RALLY – Stories…