A full season in the World Rally Championship (WRC) for M-Sport or a part-time program at Hyundai: Andreas Mikkelsen was faced with this choice in the run-up to the 2024 WRC season. And the Norwegian chose what at first glance seemed to be a less attractive option at Hyundai, where he has to share the third car with Esapekka Lappi and Dani Sordo.
In the medium term, however, Mikkelsen believes he has made the better decision. “I see here [bei Hyundai] more future. I think Hyundai is really well positioned in the World Rally Championship,” Mikkelsen told Autosport, a sister publication of Motorsport-Total.com on the Motorsport Network.
“I would say Ford is halfway there,” is how the Norwegian assesses the situation at M-Sport. “We all know it’s Malcolm [Wilson, M-Sport-Boss] and his team are. He gets some budget from Ford, but it’s hard to say what the future looks like there.”
“We could have had a full program at M-Sport,” reveals Mikkelsen. But he decided against it and went for Hyundai, where he was convinced by the restructuring under Cyril Abiteboul, who was recently promoted to President of Hyundai Motorsport, and above all by the appointment of Francois-Xavier “FX” Demaison as Technical Director.
“You have to think about your options, also in the long term, and when you see the people at Hyundai with Cyril and FX, who I know very well from Volkswagen, then they are people I trust,” says Mikkelsen. “That’s why I believe Hyundai is the best choice for me, not just for this year.”
Mikkelsen hopes for more
Mikkelsen had already raced for Hyundai in the World Rally Championship from 2017 to 2019, but then lost his cockpit in the South Korean manufacturer’s factory team. After four years, he fought his way back into the premier class of the WRC via the WRC2 detour, where Mikkelsen won his second title in 2023.
“For me it’s a one-year contract, but I hope that it can be more if I perform well. I think that would be only natural,” says Mikkelsen, who will already be at the start of the 2024 season in Monte Carlo (25 . until January 28th) will be launched for Hyundai.
“The nice thing about the Monte is that you don’t have to be there 100 percent in the car to get a good result because there are so many other factors,” says Mikkelsen. “I’m happy to start in Monte, even if it’s very difficult.