Hyundai Motorsport has doubled its official FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) campaign by entering two WRC2 crews for the 2020 season.
Two Hyundai i20 R5 rally machines will contest eight rounds of the WRC Championship with Rallye Monte-Carlo (23-26 January) starting their season.
In the hot seats are 23-year-old Norwegian Ole Christian Veiby and 22-year-old Russian Nikolay Gryazin alongside their respective co-drivers Jonas Andersson and Yaroslav Fedorov.
Their results in 2019 show talent: Veiby won the WRC2 category’s Rally Sweden, while Gryazin took the top honours at Rally Finland.
Hyundai Motorsport has selected Estonian-based RedGrey Team to manage this campaign, and the cars will be entered under Hyundai Motorsport N.
Team Principal Andrea Adamo said: “Entering WRC2 is an important decision for Hyundai Motorsport for a number of reasons. Firstly, it reaffirms and strengthens our commitment to the WRC as a whole. On the technical side, it will also allow us to prove the competitiveness and performance of our recently upgraded i20 R5 ’20 – the product of tremendous hard work by our Customer Racing department.
“Having the opportunity to put the car through its paces on the various terrains of the championship in front of rally fans around the world will be very rewarding. We look forward to working with RedGrey Team and our two young and ambitious drivers.”
Ole Christian Veiby said: “It feels really good to be joining Hyundai Motorsport. I think we are going to be a very competitive team! I can’t wait to get started. It’s no secret that the goal is always to be on the top step; I think we have the potential to be that strong, and to do really well together as a team. I also hope the experience I have picked up from a lot of different R5 cars will be valuable for the development of the i20 R5.”
Nikolay Gryazin added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for Yaroslav and me to join the championship-winning team in 2020! It is great to feel their motivation and support of me for this WRC 2 program. Joining a manufacturer is another step in my career and I am convinced I will be able to move onto other levels with Hyundai Motorsport in the future.
“I am fully committed to achieving the best results with the team. I admire what Hyundai has accomplished and all the hard work that led them to become champions. I am sure my teammates will be able to teach me a lot of things. I would like to thank Hyundai Motorsport and Andrea Adamo for entrusting this program to me.”
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