Adrien Fourmaux is enjoying his best WRC season to date in 2024 in what is his first full assault at the championship.
The Frenchman joined M-Sport in 2020 to compete in WRC-2, where he finished third in the standings in his debut year.
In 2021, Fourmaux made appearances in both WRC-2 and WRC, achieving a best finish of seventh in the latter in Greece and Finland.
The 29-year-old made the step up to WRC full-time in 2022 but endured a difficult season, retiring five times across the year – including in all of the opening three rallies – and withdrew from three of the last four events.
Fourmaux returned to WRC-2 machinery in 2023 before coming back to the Ford Puma Rally1 car with M-Sport in 2024 and has competed in every event thus far.
Adrien Fourmaux is targeting his first win in the WRC
Team principal Richard Millener admitted that M-Sport have ‘everything riding on’ Fourmaux this year to deliver results so they can keep their operation going.
Thus far, the Frenchman has done exactly that, grabbing four podiums across the season; all four being third place finishes coming at Sweden, Kenya, Poland and Finland.
Heading into the Central European Rally, Fourmaux is fifth in the standings with 140 points. He sits 21 points behind Elfyn Evans in fourth, with his Toyota teammate Sebastian Ogier sat five points ahead of him, giving the M-Sport driver a chance of finishing in the top three this year.
Speaking during the shakedown stage at the event on the WRC YouTube channel, Becs Williams revealed Fourmaux’s target of winning his first rally as he has been ‘one of the standout drivers’ in 2024 for the commentator.
“He told me a few weeks ago that he’s keen to get a few more podiums before the end of the year and obviously a win is the target as well,” she said.
“Chile, he was really searching for that. Unfortunately that didn’t come out to play, but who knows here? Fourmaux for me has been one of the standout drivers of the whole season.”
Could Adrien Fourmaux be on the way to Hyundai?
In the wake of his impressive performances, Fourmaux is ‘on pole’ to become Hyundai’s third driver for 2025 alongside Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak.
While it would create a strong driver line-up for Hyundai, it would be an extremely damaging loss for M-Sport given the faith they have put into the Frenchman this year.
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Fourmaux’s other full-time teammate Gregoire Munster has struggled to perform and is subsequently in doubt for next year. Martins Sesks had an ‘audition’ with M-Sport at Rally Chile over a possible move and the Latvian has impressed the team in his few appearances this year.
WRC-2 title contenders Oliver Solberg and Yohan Rossel are also options for M-Sport next year as they are faced with the possibility of needing to fill a huge hole with Fourmaux’s pending departure.