Hyundai announces WRC team reshuffle as programme manager departs

Hyundai Motorsport’s World Rally Championship programme manager Christian Loriaux has left the team ahead of the 2025 season.

Loriaux has played a critical role within the Korean marque since first joining the operation in 2021 as a technical consultant, before graduating to the role of WRC programme manager.

Shock news of Loriaux’s departure arrives after a 2024 season where Hyundai claimed its first WRC drivers’ title through Thierry Neuville and narrowly missed out on a third manufacturers’ title by three points to Toyota.      

A statement from the team claims that Loriaux will “embark on a new venture” with his role “set to be fulfilled by the technical department led by Francois-Xavier Demaison.

With Loriaux leaving the operation, Hyundai has reshuffled its team structure with Pablo Marcos rejoining the marque as team manager after a season at M-Sport Ford. Former team manager Tolga Ozakinci will now take up a newly-created role of Head of Race Operations.   

“Everyone at Hyundai Motorsport is enjoying a well-deserved break from competition, however – as is often the case at this time of year- we are making some key changes within the company to support our 2025 push and adapt to our environment,” said Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiotbeoul.

“We had a very strong 2024 season but didn’t achieve everything we set out to do, so looking ahead to a transformative year for our motorsport operations we have spent time considering how we can streamline our organisation.

“We are therefore delighted to welcome back Pablo Marcos back to Hyundai as team manager. His remit is very different to his previous time in the real from 2021-2023, with Pablo solely focussed on realising our sporting and performance targets within WRC. Tolga Ozakinci will now oversee the infrastructure across our rallying and racing events as well as working with our associated suppliers and partners, some of them being shared across our programs.

“Finally, we would like to thank Christian Loriaux for his contribution to our mission over the past three years. He has been a great support personally when I joined the world of rally and we wish him all the best with his endeavours. We look forward to seeing you all in 2025.”