'I did it all in F1, WRC is next biggest challenge', says Hyundai boss Cyril Abiteboul

Rally News

Former Renault and Alpine F1 team principal Cyril Abiteboul has returned to the world of motor sport as head of Hyundai's rally team. Speaking to Lawrence Butcher, the Frenchman explains his choice to tackle WRC next

Cyril Abiteboul, 2020 Renault F1

Cyril Abiteboul left his position as team principal of Renault in 2021.

Clive Mason/Getty Images

Hyundai’s World Rally team has not had a team principal since the departure of the charismatic (and often controversial) Andrea Adamo in late 2021. Powertrain engineering head Julien Moncet held the fort through 2022 with the title of Deputy Team Principal, steering the Alzenau, Germany-based outfit through a season which saw the i20 thrashed from a reliability nightmare into a rally-winning machine. Then, at the start of January and following some churning of the rumour mill, former Renault and Alpine F1 team principal, Cyril Abiteboul, was announced as the new man in charge.

Rallying tends towards recruiting from within and given the unique nature of the competition it may come as a surprise that Hyundai chose someone with no prior experience outside of F1. However, speaking to Motor Sport as the first cars hit shakedown in Sweden, Abiteboul was not fazed by the challenge.

But why rallying and why Hyundai?

WRC Hyundai

Hyundai i20 competing in the World Rally Championship – stage 19 in Naivasha, Kenya

“I was keen to back to go back in the automotive world. So why not motor sport?” says the Frenchman. After fifteen years in F1, he was also keen for a change. “I loved it, every single minute of it. I’ve been very lucky doing what I’m doing at the level I’ve been doing it. Building an F1 team, getting as far as getting podiums, and apart from doing what my friend Fred (Vasseur, Ferrari team principal) is doing, I’ve done it all. So this is an interesting, new opportunity.”

The WRC is a series that he sees as the most important FIA championship after F1. “It is the biggest, by my standards, with the DNA, the heritage and so on, but also a sport that has challenges and opportunities. It gives an interesting platform to build on from both a sporting and brand perspective.”

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The chance to work with a manufacturer making waves in the industry, and building a legacy for both its road cars and motorsport activities, also appeals. “It is a brand that I have a lot of admiration for, the way they are building leadership on technology electrification, their design,” effuses Abiteboul.

“I am so respectful for what is going on in Korea,” he adds, comparing the general industrial direction of the country, not just Hyundai, to the West Coast of America during the development of the internet and then arrival of giants like Amazon, Google and Apple.

The differences between F1 and WRC

So, what are the similarities between operating in F1 and the WRC? He admits: “The list is much shorter than the list of differences. It is very, very different and I think to a certain degree they should not be compared. At the end of the day, it’s motor sport, and it’s racing cars. But every single thing is different.”

This extends from the way a weekend of competition plays out, through to the development of the cars. For example, whereas F1 sees constant development race by race, in rallying, updates are limited and can only be introduced in the form of ‘jokers’, which can only be brought into play at specific points in the season. This requires a very strategic approach, and finding the right timing when bringing new parts can have a major impact of competitive form through the year.

But, says Abiteboul, the leadership requirements for a team principal are exactly the same as in F1. “You are building organisations that are driven by performance, which are driven by results. It is very satisfying when you’re managing a group of people, which is only looking in one direction, which is the direction of performance and success.”

Christian Horner with Cyril Abiteboul in 2019

Horner with Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul: a partnership that didn’t end well

Antonin Vincent / DPPI

One area Abiteboul does hope to bring his F1 experience to bear is optimising the driver-engineer relationship. “I’m trying to build a bit of what I’ve seen in Formula 1, which is great at [building] exchanges between engineers and drivers.”

In rallying, probably even more so than F1, this communication is vital. Teams are relatively data blind, there is no live telemetry and the rules limit the number of sensors permitted on the cars. This places an onus on drivers being able to feed back how the cars feel in a way that each teams’ engineers can act upon. Of course, every outfit also uses modelling and simulation tools to inform setups, but with ‘feel’ so imperative to driver confidence and thus speed on stages, there is a limit to what these tools can achieve.

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In an effort to improve this process within Hyundai, Abiteboul says that, for Sweden, he has implemented a standard checklist of topics to be addressed in driver-engineer debriefs. The target is to answer the question. “How do you build a group around the drivers to make sure that they’ve got the best platform on which to build performance. I’m trying to bring that to the rally world.”

Keep your enemies close

Rallying is considered to be a somewhat less cutthroat environment that the F1 piranha club. Two rallies into his new job, has Abiteboul found this to be the case? “I’ve been welcomed by the different team principals and the team. So I think it was generally positive, but you know, it’s still a competition. Everyone wants to win.”

He points out that not having cars battling together seems to instil a more cooperative mindset. “I guess, maybe we are also up against the environment. So it’s a bit different. The cars are not racing against each other, they are racing against lap time. You’re not directly opposed, I think that’s helping, but I need to see that in action properly.” He says, caveating his positivity with the observation. “I understand that there are also games being played.”

The jump from F1 to rally may be a culture shock for Cyril Abiteboul, but the pressure is unlikely to be any less intense. Hyundai expects world championship wins and the current i20 looks to be a platform with which to achieve that success. It will be down to the new boss to ensure it delivers and that his team structure is able to bring those last fractions of performance, pulling it ahead of the Toyota juggernaut.