Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul is assessing his team’s option for the 2025 World Rally Championship season.
The Korean manufacturer are one of the most established and successful teams in the WRC, finishing in the top two of the manufacturer’s championship for the last seven consecutive seasons and winning two of them in 2019 and 2020.
Interestingly, they have yet to win a drivers’ championship, with Thierry Neuville finishing second four years in a row from 2016 to 2019, three years behind Sebastien Ogier and in 2019 behind current Hyundai teammate Ott Tanak.
With the team currently leading both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships, Abiteboul is in a good position when it comes to confirming his 2025 line-up.
Hyundai boss Cyril Abiteboul says it would be pretty natural to retain Ott Tanak for 2025
Hyundai are yet to confirm any of their drivers for next season, but they do have the option to extend Tanak’s contract for the future.
The Estonian re-joined the team at the start of the 2024 season after he departed M-Sport Ford last year and had spent the previous three seasons at Hyundai, grabbing five rally wins in that time and finishing second in the standings in 2022.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Thierry Neuville from net worth to career WRC stats
Tanak is one of the most recognised talents in WRC, having won the world title in 2019 with Toyota and recorded a total of 20 victories, 49 podiums and 376 stage wins.
And with there being only four rounds to go of the current season, Abiteboul thinks it would make sense to retain the services of the 36-year-old for next year.
He told Autosport: “There is an option, and we will talk about that. I think we enjoy working together so I think an option would be something pretty natural to be exercised.”
Tanak has endured a challenging 2024 WRC campaign
While it seems like Hyundai have the Estonian in their plans for beyond this season, the 2024 WRC campaign has been a difficult year for Tanak.
Tanak is currently third in the standings behind teammate Neuville by 31 points, having recorded one rally win so far this season in Sardinia.
Along with a further two podiums in Portugal and Latvia, the 36-year-old has struggled with numerous issues and mistakes across the season, with crashes in Sweden, Kenya and Poland hampering his chances of a second world championship.
Last time out in Finland, Tanak suffered a high-speed crash at stage three, ruling him out of the rest of the weekend, with Sebastien Ogier claiming victory for Toyota.