Hyundai is faced with a dilemma when allocating engines for future WRC rounds
Photography by Hyundai
Words by Alasdair Lindsay, Head of Digital Strategy
Ott Tänak suffered a rare engine failure on Rally Chile, robbing him of the rally lead and forcing him into retirement. When he returned on Saturday with another engine, he retired after two stages to protect it, then suffered engine overheating and power loss on the final day.
What does that mean for him heading to Central European Rally? It depends on what Hyundai chooses to do. But one of its three options has already been taken off the table.
There was confusion among fans at the end of Rally del Paraguay, with many assuming Adrien Fourmaux was retired to give Ott Tänak extra points. That may have been part of it – but there was another key advantage for Tänak in Hyundai making this choice.
Fourmaux retiring before final time control allowed a new transmission to be fitted to his car without incurring a penalty for the following rally. But with Tänak in the hunt for a drivers’ title and Fourmaux out of the fight, Hyundai opted to switch Fourmaux and Tänak’s transmissions around.
FIA sporting regulations refer to vehicles as ‘car names’, with two sealed engines per car name. But there was an additional complication for transmissions: Paraguay and Chile were ‘linked events’ so the same car name had to run one transmission across two events.
Fourmaux’s retirement before final time control allowed the car name he’d been running in Paraguay to have a new transmission without facing a penalty. But Tänak could only inherit that new transmission if he was allocated to the entire car, as the new transmission had to be fitted to what had been Fourmaux’s car in Paraguay.
Little could Hyundai know that Fourmaux’s engine from Paraguay was going to spontaneously fail in Chile. But it did – with Tänak at the wheel.
Hyundai technical director François-Xavier Demaison confirmed the swap: “Yes, that was Adrien’s engine in Paraguay and it was Ott’s engine here because we swapped the car in the nomination to FIA,” he told DirtFish.
After his Friday retirement, Tänak was able to fit the other engine which had been associated with the car name he’d taken from Fourmaux for Chile. It had been his engine for Rally Sweden.
There were concerns it was not in tip-top condition either, hence retiring two stages into Saturday’s itinerary. When he returned on Sunday, the engine began to overheat and left Tänak down on power.
It would have been possible for that engine to be binned and a third engine be fitted without penalty, had Hyundai opted to retire Tänak before the finish, in much the same manner as Fourmaux in Paraguay or Esapekka Lappi on last year’s Rally Latvia. Hyundai considered doing so – then chose not to.
“We thought about it but he [Tänak] had a one-point guarantee from the Sunday [classification],” said Demaison. “Potentially he could score some points in the power stage. And without his small off in the last few corners of the powerstage, I’m sure he would have scored some points in the powerstage.
“There was a lot of discussion [about this]. These types of decisions are never easy to take. But we say we maximize the points, and even one point can be a deciding point at the end of the season.
“There are many occasions where people are champions with one point, or with one point in a nicer situation for the last rallies. I remember in the past when the last rally was Rally GB, and if you didn’t have to win there, it was always good to have one point there. One point is one point.”
Tänak can ditch the engine he carried to the finish of Chile by being assigned to a different car name for Central European Rally – and thus pivot to a different pool of sealed engines. But someone within the Hyundai line-up will inherit an engine pool that has only one working engine in it – and one which Tänak suggested was down on power.
The alternative is to replace the engine which failed in Chile with a new motor. But doing so will lead to a five minute penalty for whichever driver uses it.
“It’s an option, yes,” confirmed Demaison. “We’ll see what we will do and inform you in due time.”
It appears likely that someone in the Hyundai line-up will either start with Tänak’s second engine from Chile or a new motor with a five minute penalty. But it’ll be nearly a month before we find out which outcome it is – and which driver must bear that cross.
Words:Alasdair Lindsay
Tags: Central European Rally 2025, Hyundai i20 N Rally1, Ott Tanak, Rally Chile, Rally Chile 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date September 16, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/09/otULys2P-2025CHILE_RT_129-780x520.jpg September 16, 2025
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