Becs Williams’ excellent interview with Hyundai Motorsport’s Juho Hanninen and Michel Nandan

Amid all the drama and the excitement of the 2013 Rally Deutschland I managed to miss and overlook one very interesting feature, prepared and presented by the WRC Live team. Becs Williams teased us about it last week, saying how interesting and informative her visit to Hyundai Motorsport test session has been, but I just forgot about it during WRC week end – I was more focused on what was happening on the stages, and there were also other distractions such as Formula 1 and other commitments. Shameful, I know.

But, it’s better be late (which I so often am) than never, so here it is, 20-ish minute long feature about the Hyundai’s prospects, as the team ran its first tarmac test with Bryan Bouffier and Juho Hanninen. Becs caught up with the car (which produced some lovely turbo powered sounds), test and development driver Juho Hanninen and team principal Michel Nandan. No, they (Hyundai) still did not make up their mind about the line up for 2014, but they were ready to talk about some of the criteria on which the decision will be made eventually.

Conversation with Juho was also very interesting, even though he stopped short of saying what exactly was he missing in terms of car behaviour and performance. Same goes for Michel Nandan, he also mentioned some of the problems they experienced with the car, but stopped short of saying anything more. To be frank, I did not expect them to go all public with details, but it really bugs me! You don’t need to reveal all the specs and details, just tell me one little thing is all I ask – what was it you missed in the car, Mr. Hanninen – was it over- or understeering, was it bouncing or rolling too much, did you miss more response in mid revs…? Give us at least something – nobody except maybe Hyundai’s board of directors will hold it against you. Instead, we would love you even more – we’re well aware this is all new for the team and we are so aware there are problems and obstacles, if you share at least some of them with us, we’ll be able to appreciate your work and efforts even more.

So Hyundai, what say you? ;)

In the meantime, take a listen to what Juho and Michel had to say about this and next year prospects and plans for Hyundai Motorsport. Finally, big thanks to Becs for picking just the right questions – nothing beats experience coupled with genuine and deep understanding and love of WRC. Excellent!