Hyundai Motor Company's first WRC involvement dated to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when a Korean-based predecessor department, Hyundai Motor Sport, contracted Motor Sport Developments to campaign the Hyundai Coupe F2 in the 2-Litre Cup and the Hyundai Accent WRC in the top WRC Manufacturers' class. Budget pressures led to withdrawal in September 2003, with a promise to return with an in-house operation based in Germany.
Nine years later, at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, Hyundai announced its return to the WRC for 2014. On 19 December 2012, Hyundai Motorsport GmbH was formally established in Alzenau, fulfilling the earlier commitment. The new entity was structured from the outset as a long-term factory investment, unlike the contracted arrangement that preceded it.
Hyundai debuted in the WRC in 2014 with the Hyundai i20 WRC. Thierry Neuville was named lead driver ahead of the season-opening Monte-Carlo Rally in January 2014 and went on to secure the team's first victory at that year's Rallye Deutschland. Neuville has remained with the team ever since, becoming its most consistent performer across multiple generations of cars.
Development drivers for the pre-season testing phase in 2013 included Juho Hanninen, Bryan Bouffier, and Chris Atkinson. Over subsequent years the driver roster expanded to include Dani Sordo, Hayden Paddon, Kevin Abbring, Andreas Mikkelsen, Sebastien Loeb, Craig Breen, Ott Tanak, Oliver Solberg, Esapekka Lappi, and Adrien Fourmaux.
The team's original Hyundai i20 WRC was followed by an evolutionary i20 NG (Next Generation) run in 2016. For 2017, a comprehensive redesign produced the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC to meet new technical regulations. In 2022, the hybrid-powered Hyundai i20 N Rally1 was launched under the sport's latest regulations, though its development was complicated by internal team turmoil and the departure of team principal Andrea Adamo.
Hyundai Motorsport won the FIA WRC Manufacturers' championship for the first time in 2019, repeating the achievement in 2020. The team finished second in the manufacturers' standings in several other seasons and produced regular top-three finishes across the drivers' championship through Neuville and Tanak.
From 2022, Hyundai's WRC2 programme has been operated through contracted customer teams rather than a direct factory entry. Estonian-based RedGrey Team (formerly MM Motorsport) ran Hyundai i20 N Rally2 cars on Hyundai's behalf during 2022, with French racing company 2C Competition taking over the role in 2023.
In December 2015, Hyundai Motorsport established a Customer Racing department to supply rally and touring cars to private teams worldwide. Its first project was an R5-specification car based on the Hyundai i20, which debuted in competition at the Tour de Corse in September 2016. The department has since expanded to cover multiple vehicle categories and customer markets globally.
The Hyundai i20 N Rally2 — successor to the i20 R5 — was introduced at the 2021 Ypres Rally and has become one of the most widely used cars in the Rally2 class worldwide.
Parallel to its rally activities, Hyundai Motorsport developed the i30 N TCR touring car, announced in early 2017. The car debuted at the Touring Car Endurance Series 24 Hours of Misano before customer delivery. In the inaugural 2018 World Touring Car Cup season, the i30 N TCR achieved notable success: Gabriele Tarquini claimed the drivers' championship with BRC Racing Team, and YMR secured the Teams' Championship. The car also won the USAC Pirelli World Challenge TCR class in 2018 with Bryan Herta Autosport. A Veloster N TCR variant was added in 2019 for markets where the i30 model is not sold, while an Elantra N TCR was introduced in 2020.
Hyundai's factory WRC programme has grown from an ambitious re-entry into one of the championship's leading operations within a decade. The team's two manufacturers' titles and consistent driver championship challenges have established it alongside Toyota and Ford as one of the sport's defining entrants in the modern hybrid era.