The cork is out the bottle.
As expected, Adrien Fourmaux will drive for Hyundai in next season’s World Rally Championship, contesting a full season alongside Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak.
But while confirmation of Fourmaux’s move answers one big question, it generates many others.
These are the immediate questions raised in the aftermath of Fourmaux’s Hyundai switch, and what it means for him, Hyundai and the WRC.
Who replaces him at M-Sport?
M-Sport is in need of a new driver for next year
Having lost Tänak the year before, for the second season in succession M-Sport has lost its star driver with Fourmaux ironically heading the same direction as Tänak did 12 months ago.
Where this now leaves the semi-works outfit is currently unclear.
Grégoire Munster contested a full season alongside Fourmaux in 2024, and showed strong signs of progression with decent results, and performances, to round out the season.
He would therefore appear a likely candidate to remain in a Puma Rally1 – particularly as he has strong commercial backing – but who potentially jumps in alongside him? Does M-Sport even run multiple cars full-time?
The sad reality however is M-Sport’s highly unlikely to get hold of a driver that can perform immediately as well as Fourmaux did.
What happens to Lappi, Sordo and Mikkelsen?
Lappi, Sordo and Mikkelsen's futures are unclear
Fourmaux’s presence in Hyundai’s line-up is also an immediate problem for those who shared the third i20 N Rally1 in 2024: Esapekka Lappi, Dani Sordo and Andreas Mikkelsen.
What do they do now?
In its press release Hyundai made a clear point of stressing the importance of running a third full-time car in its ranks. Cyril Abiteboul was quoted as saying: “For the renewed challenges of next year, consistency and stability across all three cars will be crucial.”
But the press release equally stated that Hyundai “continues to assess further possibilities” for its existing three drivers, so could a fourth car be implemented on certain rallies?
If so, it would be a move to match Toyota, which confirmed its driver lineup on Monday last week. Four drivers (Kalle Rovanperä, Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari) will drive GR Yaris Rally1s on all 14 events next year, with Sébastien Ogier boosting that total to five on certain events.
Is this the right move for Fourmaux?
There are clear pros and cons in Fourmaux's decision to swap M-Sport for Hyundai
This has been a debate for a while now, as speculation mounted over the Frenchman making this move.
Ultimately though, it’s an unanswerable question until this time next year.
The pull factors, however, are obvious. In moving to Hyundai Fourmaux will increase his salary and drive the car that has just won the drivers’ championship – and nearly the manufacturers’ championship too.
But in turn, the risk is he’s giving up guaranteed number-one status to potentially become a supporting act for Neuville and Tänak. What assurances (if any) Fourmaux has been given around status within the team are unknown, but Hyundai hasn’t been afraid to sacrifice drivers in the past – albeit predominantly ones on part-time seasons, which Fourmaux isn’t.
Is this the right move for Hyundai?
Hyundai has made a key strategic change in bringing in Fourmaux
In short: yes.
It’s very hard to see how Hyundai loses by bringing in Fourmaux – other than potentially causing a touch more tension if things get tight in the drivers’ championship.
What it gains is a driver performing at the top of his game, who’s hungry for more success and weakens another team’s line-up by leaving.
And it brings Hyundai more parity with Toyota in the battle for the manufacturers’ championship. Now it also has three full-time drivers in contention, with nobody playing catch-up on seat-time after a few months out of competition – something Abiteboul has openly admitted Hyundai didn’t get right strategically in 2024.
