Background
His father, Edwin Abbring, is also a well-known former rally driver.
His father, Edwin Abbring, is also a well-known former rally driver.
Abbring started his motorsport career in Rallycross with a 60 bhp strong buggy for newcomers, winning the 2005 and 2006 titles of the Dutch Ford RST series. In 2007 he competed in the Dutch Rally Championship with a Mitsubishi Colt. He also made his World Rally Championship debut in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. In 2008 he began competing in the Junior World Rally Championship in a Renault Clio R3, with backing from KNAF Talent First.
He has also competed in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, winning the 2WD category in Ypres and Zlín.
After a successful trial rally for Volkswagen Motorsport driving a Škoda Fabia S2000 car at 2011 Wales Rally Great Britain he signed with Volkswagen for the 2012 WRC season driving one of their Fabia"s, sharing the second seat alongside Sebastien Ogier with Andreas Mikkelsen. Sadly, he was offered very few outings by Volkswagen in 2012 and didn"t rally in the WRC at all in 2013.
Plagued with technical issues, Abbring took the lead in 5 European Research Council events, but was forced to retire with engine trouble on all event except Azores, (where he finished 2nd after falling back from the lead with mechanical issues) and the Tour de Corse, where he finished 3rd. During January 2015, it was announced he will be the main testdriver for Hyundai Motorsport in the World Rally Championship.
While his main target will be the development of the new Hyundai i20 WRC, Abbring and Seb Marshall will also be entered on selected WRC events later in the year.
WRC results
* Season still in progress. = JWRC results European Research Council results.
He took his first JWRC win on the 2009 Rally Poland, on his way to fourth in the final standings for 2009. In 2010 he won the JWRC in Portugal. In October 2011 Abbring won the Driver of the Academy award for the inaugural FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy. In 2013 he won the French Peugeot 208 Rally Cup, leading to Peugeot Sport offering him a drive in the European Rally Championship in their new Peugeot 208 T16 R5 car.
