Hankook plans to introduce a new winter tyre in 2027 after the previous specification drew criticism from World Rally Championship crews at Rally Monte Carlo last weekend.
Extreme winter weather rendered conditions the toughest witnessed at the asphalt WRC season opener in more than decade, as crews faced treacherous snow, ice and slush-covered roads.
Prior to last year’s Monte Carlo, when conditions remained largely dry, drivers had already raised concerns with the winter tyres produced by the Korean manufacturer, then operating in its first season. In agreement with the FIA, Hankook made minor tweaks to its winter tyres in a bid to improve it.
However, drivers remained critical of the tyre’s ability to evacuate slush and provide grip. Reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier was the most vocal of the rubber after losing more than a minute in snowy and icy conditions to eventual winner Oliver Solberg.
“I’ve never seen that in my whole life, such a s*** tyre, unbelievable,” Ogier said during a stage end interview, before adding in the media zone, “for me it is not acceptable to get product like this in the world championship after one year of feedback, where we said that they need to work on that, and all that is done is a centimetre cut in the tyres.”
Hankook has confirmed it has been developing an all-new winter tyre since last year’s event, but was unable to complete its development in time for last weekend’s rally. The manufacturer expects to debut this evolution at next year’s Rally Monte Carlo.
“I think with the conditions being as they are with quite a lot of snow and a lot of slush, the conditions themselves are so difficult and it is very clear that our snow tyre for these conditions is suboptimal," Hankook representative Steven Cho told Motorsport.com.
“We probably knew that coming in and we have been working hard to develop our next evolutions but with snow and ice conditions it is very difficult to replicate because the season is so short. We wanted to bring a step forward but we don’t want to go backwards.
“We are quite positive about the direction we are able to move in the future but we always knew it would be tough. The comments from the world champion were harsh but we take it. We take it constructively and we move forward.
“In agreement with the FIA we did some modifications to the tyre in the off-season. They were done in advance all by Hankook and we wanted to make sure that the uniformity was good and at high quality. I think it did would bring an incremental improvement but clearly we are not where we want to be so the drivers have their work cut out for them.”
However, Hankook is confident its new winter tyre for 2027 will prove to be a much stronger product in extreme winter conditions.
“We are almost beginners here in Monte Carlo with this being our second rally here, and we have a big hope for next year that we will have a much better product that will satisfy the drivers,” said Manfred Sandbichler, European Director of Hankook Competition.
“Hopefully we have similar conditions to this year to show the performance and improvement but this is our ultimate goal.
“We have finished the testing but the problem with the winter and ice and snow tyres is we have a small time limit where you can test the tyres in these conditions. It makes this development work really tough and challenging for us.”
