Francois-Xavier (FX) Demaison was recruited to the role of Technical🦹 Director in May and was on site at last weekend’s Rally Italia Sardegna to witness Thierry Neuville hand Hyundai its first victory of the 2023 campa♑ign.

Demaison ꦗcomes with a proven track record in a number of🐻 motorsport codes, including Formula One where he enjoyed a spell with Williams Racing.

it is with rallying the Frenchman has enjoyed his greatest successes,ꦬ no♚tably with Volkswagen Motorsport between 2013 and 2016 when it clinched four consecutive drivers’ and manufacturers’ crowns.

Prior to joining the German outfit – which was victorious on 43 out of 52 ra♐llies it started with its all-conquering Polo World Rally Car, the 54-year-old learned his trade at Subaru in the World Rally Championship.

Hyundai’s sporting arm has been going through something of a transformation, with the first keynote signing coming in May 2021 with the arrival of Belgian Christian Loriaux who was installed as an engineering consultꦑa💯nt.

At the beginning o🅠f this year, Former Renault 💛Formula One boss Cyril Abiteboul was added to the company’s payroll as Team Principal in a sign of its intent to seal a maiden drivers’ title.

Asked during Rally Italia Sardegna what he expected Demaison will bring to the Korean marque’s World Rally Champion🎐ship assault moving forward, Abiteboul said: “I think that was clear to me since joining that there w﷽as a big gap in the orchard in the absence of a technical director.

“Motorsport is about technology, including rally, we have got very good ingredients, we have an excellent po𒊎wertrain, we have a very good chassis, a lot of effort in terms of data science, performance analysis and rally engineering.

“At some point you need someone at the top which is giving a technical direction, someone who is happy to try and give som𝐆e strategic directions to the team. You also need [them] to provide strong technical leadership and make sure that we deliver.

“We have got a lot of good ideas, lots of excellent intu🍌itions, but at some point we need to turn all of that into a realisation, concrete execution and this is very much what we🎀 will be focused on doing,” added Abiteboul.

On top of his sporting endeavours, Demaison will also have a hand on technical resources, 🥃and work closely with the ꦍresearch and development groups within Hyundai Motor Company.