In promising news for Chris Atkinson’s on-again off-again WRC career he has been signed to Hyundai’s WRC program. At this stage it’s a test role only and he’ll be behind the wheel of an i20 WRC prototype later this week.
“It is great to be able to integrate Chris into Hyundai Motorsport testing line-up for this season and I am convinced he will bring a lot of valuable WRC experience,” Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal Michel Nandan said. “Chris will support the work of our main test drivers Juho and Bryan. With the combined expertise of all three test drivers, we will be able to benefit from thorough and comprehensive input at every test session.â€
Atkinson revealed he was at Hyundai’s WRC headquarter a few weeks ago and hopes his experience will be of value to the team. “It is such an exciting project,” he said. “After visiting the Hyundai Motorsport factory three weeks ago, I am simply impressed by the team’s commitment and achievements so far.
“I have a lot of experience of many different WRC cars and events, and I will utilise this knowledge to support the development of the 2014 i20 WRC car.â€
6 replies on “Chris Atkinson joins Hyundai WRC program”
Excellent!
Congratulations to Hyundai for finding the ideal crash tester for their WRC program. They’ll get loads more feedback from the WRC’s all time leading expert on car destruction (one crash in every three rallies) than from those yellow plastic dummies.
Dave, your a big fan of Chris Atkinsons i see.
Dave, your a big fan of Chris Atkinson i see.
Absolutely, WRC was fun to watch when his crazy crashes would be the best bit of most rounds, but these days it’s boring without them. It only got better when the Rally2 rules were brought in so he could restart on the second half of the rally and do it all again!
[…] only a week since Chris Atkinson was officially announced as a test driver for the Hyundai WRC team and already he has plenty of development miles behind him. Atkinson and […]