The Estonian made an immediate impact with Hyundai, helping the Korean manufacturer to the manufacturers’ title in his first season. But now he wants to make history and land a maiden drivers’ crown for the marque.
Tänak, who won his first world championship with Toyota in 2019, said: “It’s great to be back. How’s it going to be? We will find out.”
There’s been significant management change in the team since Tänak last drove an i20 N Rally1 Hybrid, with team principal Cyril Abiteboul and technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison the headline signings.
Tänak added: “The company has been working quite a lot to
build up the new structure and to be ready to be competitive in the
championship. Already last year we saw some quite big steps with the new team
principal and a technical director and some of the stuff so the intention is
clearly there.
“The car isn’t much different [from the end of 2022] – it’s
pretty similar in many aspects. There’s been some fine-tuning in the meantime.
The feeling was quite good since the beginning – but then we only did one day
[of testing] and we haven’t seen too much yet. We need to do some rallies first
to get feedback.
“It’s the start of the season, so everything is achievable.
The target is to win everything that is possible. How it’s going to work out?
We’ll see through the season – it’s a long year.
“There is business which is not finished, we will fight for
that business.”
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