Hyundai Supremo Believes Safari Will Be Full Of Surprises

Will it be Toyota Gazoo Racing, M-Sport Ford or Hyundai Motorsport? This is the million dollar question rally fans have been asking in the run up to the WRC Safari Rally slated for June 24-27.

Rally purists reckon that Safari will require absolute control from World Rally Team bosses and cucumber calmness from the drivers. Whoever wins this will have won the first Safari in the current WRC format!! 

Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal Andrea Adamo when asked about his expectations opined that Safari could elicit ‘surprise galore’.

Adamo candidly admits that the event will be a far cry from what the current generation of WRT drivers are used to.

"I will not be surprised to see surprises in Safari Rally. I have never been to Africa despite the fact that I have worked with teams which rallied in the Safari, but never had a chance to be there. Even in 2007 when I was the Abarth Technical Director, I was not unable to come there when Safari joined the all-new Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). Also in the last WRC Safari to be run at International level in 2002 I was missing in action."

"So I'm very curious to see how much the event has changed from the past and what will be different from whatever we knew from memories of the old Safari that was running for thousands and thousands of kilometers across the Savannah."

Speaking via Zoom to Motorsport411, Adamo added that the Kenyan round of WRC will be a different 'ball game' because Africa has it's own different gravel conditions. 

"It's a special feeling, so I'm really looking forward to it. To race in the Savannah is something special."

KCB Bank Kenya are the official financial partners of WRC Safari Rally, thanks a Ksh 100 million windfall announced recently by CEO Joshua Oigara. 

Toyota Kenya has also come on board as co-sponsors with a Ksh. 30million boost.

Hyundai Motorsport lineup has Belgian Thierry Neuville, 2019 Champion Ott Tanak (Estonia) while Dani Sordo of Spain will drive the team’s third car. 

"I have a contact with Neuville and Tanak that they will run in every rally. For Dani we have to see the overall split of events and for an event like Safari, he definitely fits the bill."

Tänak and Neuville have led  Hyundai's 2021 attack, with Sordo and Craig Breen sharing the third.