The curtains are up on Hyundai Motorsport’s final version of its i20 WRC and the full team line-up for the 2014 season of the FIA World Rally Championship, which begins with the Rallye Monte Carlo next month.

Hyundai Shell World Rally Team will enter two i20 World Rally Cars in the 2014 season, with the primary goal being to finish each rally event with both cars.

“In less than one year, we have built and tested a brand new WRC-specification car, the Hyundai i20 WRC, and established a professional team and modern motorsport facility. It’s a huge accomplishment but we know that we have a lot to learn in our first season,” said Team Principal of Hyundai Motorsport GmbH, Michel Nandan.

The first car will be driven by the team’s lead driver Thierry Neuville, while the second one will be shared by Juho Hänninen, Dani Sordo and Chris Atkinson. The Finnish driver will be used at most events, with Sordo to replace him on Rallye Monte-Carlo and Atkinson on Rally Australia.

The Hyundai i20 World Rally Car has a livery dominated by Shell, the team’s title sponsor, which signed a multi-year partnership with the Korean carmaker.

Hyundai also used the occasion to announce the “N” high performance sub-brand, which will be used on both the i20 WRC and future series production high performance cars. “N” takes inspiration from the Namyang R&D Centre that has collaborated with Hyundai Motorsport on the development of the i20 WRC and will transfer lessons learned from racing to production cars.

By Dan Mihalascu

PHOTO GALLERY

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