Inside Hyundai’s F1-spec mobile WRC home

The World Rally Championship is a travelling circus and unlike circuit racing, where teams work out of pit garages, WRC operations are required to set up camp in temporarily constructed service parks.

In Formula 1, teams are equipped with glamorous multi-floor temporary structures that pop up in paddocks to house their staff and an ever-growing guest list. The WRC is no different, with top teams Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford all operating out of their own brand of impressive peripatetic structures.

To run a fleet of world rally cars sufficiently, teams need to build a workshop facility at every round of the championship, before thoughts can turn to the actual event. This is required to provide an area for the mechanics and team personnel to service and manage the cars, while also entertaining sponsors and guests.

In the not-too-distant past, WRC teams would have operated out of tents and trucks, but today the game has changed, with top manufacturers using luxurious temporary buildings. And this year, Hyundai Motorsport has stepped up its service park game with an all-new structure that travels to all European rounds of the championship.

At two stories high, covering 220 square metres, furnished with floor-to-ceiling windows, bordered by sky blue and orange factory-coloured cladding, Hyundai’s service park home from home is an imposing structure that towers over its rivals. It’s easy to find where this team is located in the service park.

It’s an eyecatching piece of engineering that not only provides the team with a place to manage its WRC operation at rallies, but acts as a huge marketing tool to showcase the Hyundai marque and its commitment to the series. From the outside, it may seem excessive but, after scratching the surface, the necessity for its vastness is easily explained.

The Hyundai motorhome also houses its service area

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

You could be fooled into thinking that this is a permanent building, but this is far from the truth. Although the competitive component of WRC events begins most often on Thursdays, construction of Hyundai’s service park structure starts a week before the rally. This can take up to five days to build depending on the service park terrain and the weather conditions, such is the complexity and detail put into this construction.

Arguably the most important section is the area that houses the cars to be prepared and worked on during the rally. There is ample room for mechanics and engineers to work on the three i20 Ns. The high ceiling and array of windows creates a perfectly lit arena, providing an ideal environment for mechanics to complete the required work on the vehicles, which access the building through sliding garage doors located on the front.

While the significant use of glass windows maximises the amount of natural light for the mechanics to work under, it also provides fans with an opportunity to watch the team work on the cars while offering further ease of access to the drivers.

"We are spending a lot of time here in this facility, we are working day and night. I think it’s very important for the team and the atmosphere to have good food" Julien Moncet

Adjacent to the service area is the engineering office, which has moved into this new expansive service bay area for 2022, having been originally housed in one of the team’s transporters. The theory behind the move is to ensure that the engineers are in a closer proximity to the cars, thus improving communication between them and the mechanics.

“It’s a brand-new facility that we introduced in Monte Carlo [in January] this year,” Hyundai deputy team director Julien Moncet explains. “It’s quite different from the one we were using last year. It takes four to five days to assemble, but to disassemble it takes only two days.

“Now, this year, the service part is on just the one floor where we do all the maintenance service and so on. Then next to that is the engineering room and this is quite new, as we used to be in the truck behind. The site is about 220 square metres.”

Moving from the service bay, there’s an impressive reception area with outside seating that leads to a two-floored section of the building, which includes a balcony on the upper floor, overlooking the service park. It is in this part of the structure where Hyundai welcomes its VIP guests and hosts media interviews with the drivers in a cleanly laid-out environment furnished with tables and chairs. This area is also where team personnel can eat, drink and relax in the limited quiet moments during a rally.

Media conduct interviews in the motorhome, where VIP guests are also welcomed

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Upstairs houses a suite of offices for the team’s senior management where top-level meetings are conducted and key decision are made. This section of the building also features a bespoke office for Hyundai Motorsport president Sean Kim for when the South Korean marque’s boss attends WRC rounds.

Behind the structure is an array of tents and trucks that act as an inventory of spare parts from bodywork to mechanical components, such as gearboxes and dampers. One tent is filled with Hyundai’s allocation of wheels and tyres that are all primed and ready to tackle the stages.

Key to the operation of any motorsport team is ensuring its troops are fed and watered sufficiently. This is perhaps even more important in rallying, given the length of days that mechanics, engineers, drivers, co-drivers and other team personnel are required to work. The service park is lived in much more than hotel rooms during the event, since days often begin in the early hours of the morning and finish late into the night, depending on the outcome of the action on the stages.

In the catering department Hyundai has spared no expense – the facility is equipped with its own kitchen and bakery, operated by four chefs. The kitchen features a huge stove, ovens, two chest freezers and a pantry equivalent to the size found in most household kitchens. It is here where luxury pastries and gourmet meals for personnel and guests, using ingredients mostly imported from Italy, are carefully prepared.

“It is very good food and we have very good catering, and that is very important,” says Moncet. “We are spending a lot of time here in this facility, we are working day and night. I think it’s very important for the team and the atmosphere to have good food, and they do really incredible food here.”

To top off these culinary delights, there is a choice of three types of ice cream available 24/7 (pistachio, hazelnut and coffee flavours were on offer for Rally Portugal in May), which have proven to be a particular favourite among guests.

“I do not eat ice cream myself, so I cannot say much about that, but we do have some people that visit us just for the ice cream,” adds Moncet.

Top-quality catering is important for team morale, Moncet believes

Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport

While Moncet is happy to joke about the team’s popular frozen desserts, all of these features – from the large windows that provide so much light in the service area, through the connecting engineering office, to the hospitality and top-quality catering – create the ideal environment for the team to work, offering Hyundai the best chance for results on the road.

“For sure it is really important to feel comfortable in your working area as the mechanics will be spending quite some hours in it,” he says. “We have a lot of light and a lot of space, which is more than enough for three cars. It is important to have the engineers next to the cars as that improves the communication even if sometimes it is noisy with the noise from the car. We are really happy to have this new facility this year.”

While Hyundai appears to be winning the service park facility arms race, Moncet has downplayed suggestions that there is any competition among teams over their structures, stressing that winning rallies remains the main objective

Hyundai isn’t the only WRC team with an impressive service park facility. Rival Toyota operates from a single-floor temporary structure that has expanded this year to cater for five cars. Meanwhile, M-Sport Ford constructs its own home from home using modified shipping containers and large inflatable marquees to create a clear visible presence.

While Hyundai appears to be winning the service park facility arms race, Moncet has downplayed suggestions that there is any competition among teams over their structures, stressing that winning rallies remains the main objective.

“There is not this kind of competition,” he says. “The most important thing is still to win the rally on the Sunday, for sure it is a marketing tool to show the commitment of the brand.”

He then adds with a cheeky grin: “Honestly there is no competition, ours is much better anyway.”

Moncet is confident that his team's motorhome is the pride of the service park

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport