Daniel “Dani” Sordo Castillo (Dani Sordo) will do the same as teammate Thierry Neuville and begin his 10th anniversary with the Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT in the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship season-opener in Rallye Monte-Carlo next weekend.
Besides the 10th year with Hyundai, Sordo will also be celebrating his 20th anniversary in the WRC. The Spaniard started of his career in the 2003 Rallye Catalunya – Costa Brava when he entered with his private Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII in the home rally where he finished in respected 18th overall as the best national classed driver.
He made his Rallye Monte-Carlo debut two years later driving a privately owned Citroen C2 S1600 in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship, he finished fourth in class and 15th overall that year. The year after in 2006 he made the step up to the WRC class and joined the Kronos Total Citroen WRT for one season before he got promoted to the main factory team Citroen Total WRT the following season.
The same year he clinched his first podium finish in Monte-Carlo and run three more seasons for the team before stepping down to some part-time driving when he joined the Mini WRC WRT in 2011. In 2013 he was back at Citroen and took another podium in Monte-Carlo and also won his first-ever rally in Rally Deutschland the very same year.
Credit: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
He joined Hyundai Motorsport in 2014 where he belongs now still, he has done Monte-Carlo six times for the team and this will be the seventh. For this season he is going for another part-time season and he is contracted to do seven events in total while teammate Craig Breen, who has returned for 2023 will go for the remaining six.
“Rallye Monte-Carlo is a difficult event, but now it is based more around Monaco and the south of France it may be a little bit better in terms of the weather. It is always a challenge due to the conditions; normally it is cold and you have the potential for ice, especially first thing in the morning. As a result, in the course of one stage you can come across so many different levels of grip on the tarmac, so it is very demanding.” Sordo said.
“However, we need to be a little bit closer to the rally to see what the weather will do and understand what we are going to face on the stages. It is important to start the season well; every time you arrive to the first event you do so with full power and recharged batteries. Overall, I really like Monte-Carlo and its stages, so hopefully we can perform well and begin the year with a positive result.”