Hyundai looks set to join the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class and race at the Le Mans 24 Hours within the next three years.
The South Korean manufacturer, Motorsport.com has learned, is gearing up to develop an LMDh hybrid prototype for a programme that is likely to encompass the GTP category in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
What is not clear is the timing of a move that has been facilitated by the two-year extension of the LMDh and Le Mans Hypercar rulesets in both the WEC and IMSA until the end of 2029.
Sources suggest that an LMDh developed at Hyundai Motorsport in Germany could begin racing as early as 2026, the final year of the current set of technical regulations in the World Rally Championship in which it has fielded a factory programme since 2014.
Hyundai Motorsport president and team principal Cyril Abiteboul would not confirm that a prototype programme is under evaluation, only that the marque is “exploring different categories” and has a desire “to make it clear our ambition in this sport”, when asked about speculation linking Hyundai to the WEC.
The former Caterham and Renault Formula 1 team boss suggested that an announcement by the Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s third largest car maker by sales, in which it will lay out its plans for the WRC and the longer-term future could arrive in September.
“There will be announcement in due course by the relevant person,” he told Motorsport.com when asked about Hyundai’s future motorsport plans at last weekend’s Rally Poland.
“I haven’t said that specifically we have some things to announce. The first thing that we will announce, but we want to do it in the proper way is our plan in WRC.”
He added that it is also “planning to clarify” its future ambitions.
Cyril Abiteboul, Team principal Hyundai World Rally Team
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
A 2026 entry in either the WEC or IMSA or both would suppose that development of a Hyundai prototype and the internal combustion component of its hybrid powertrain is already up and running.
It is understood that Hyundai has identified French constructor ORECA as its chassis development partner: an LMDh must be based the spine of one of the still-born next-generation LMP2 prototypes that were originally due to arrive in 2023 when the licences for ORECA, Dallara, Multimatic and Ligier to produce P2 machinery were extended in early 2020.
ORECA already has experience…
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