Hyundai Motorsport has announced its full line-up for the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship, calling upon the expertise of five skilled and competitive crews.
Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe and Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria will contest every round of the season while the third car vacated by Ott Tanak will be shared between Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera, Esapekka Lappi/Enni Mälkönen, and Hayden Paddon/John Kennard.
Sordo and Carrera enjoyed a strong season in the Portuguese national championship with the Hyundai i20 N Rally2, clinching the title in a close finale in October. The Spanish duo have claimed nine FIA WRC podiums together since their partnership began in 2021, including two Hyundai Motorsport podium lock-outs at Acropolis Rally in 2023 and 2024. Sordo and Carrera will begin their 2026 campaign at Rally Islas Canarias.
Lappi will be looking to add to his five podiums with the team as he embarks on his next chapter with the 2024 WRC2 co-drivers’ champion, Mälkönen. While the Finnish pair only began competing together at Arctic Lapland Rally in January they won the Finnish Rally Championship. Their first WRC event will also be at February’s Rally Sweden – the scene of Lappi’s long-awaited second WRC victory in 2024.
Paddon and Kennard make a welcome return, having last competed with the team in 2018 and 2017 respectively. The Kiwi duo have continued to represent winning multiple New Zealand Rally Championships, back-to-back European Rally Championship titles in 2023 and 2024, as well as this year’s Australian Rally Championship title. During their time at Hyundai Motorsport, the crew claimed a spectacular victory at Rally Argentina in 2016, and three further podiums in Poland (2016), Sweden (2016) and Sardinia (2015); Paddon also scored four podiums with co-driver Seb Marshall. Paddon and Kennard’s first event will be January’s Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Hyundai Motorsport WRC Sporting Director Andrew Wheatley said: “We’re delighted to confirm our line-up for the 2026 FIA WRC season, which will see Thierry and Adrien compete in every round with a trio of very experienced and competitive crews sharing our third entry. Bringing in Dani, EP and Hayden enables us to call upon their individual strengths to support our manufacturers’ title ambitions next year. We had a difficult decision to make – whether to opt for experience and consistency, or bring in a rising star and nurture them. However, we are in the last year of the Rally1 technical regulations and we believe the right path is to bring in drivers with knowledge of the car and the team.”
Discussion about this post