M-Sport has unveiled its full line-up for the 2024 World Rally Championship, with Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster both confirmed as full-season drivers.
The duo replace outgoing pairing Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet; Tänak has moved back to Hyundai for next season while Loubet has no plans confirmed for 2024 as yet.
Though the pairing is a complete reshuffle of its 2023 line-up, both are familiar with the Ford Puma Rally1: Fourmaux completed most of the 2022 season in the Puma, then made a cameo comeback at the season-ending Rally Japan last month; Munster made two Rally1 starts in Chile and Central Europe this year.
It marks an effective double promotion within the M-Sport setup. Both were regulars in the team’s Rally2 machinery in 2023; Fourmaux won the British title and scored a WRC2 podium in Finland, while Munster won the WRC2 Challenger category in Greece.
While his Rally Japan effort ended in a ditch after aquaplaning off the road on SS2, Fourmaux’s 2023 performances have done enough to convince M-Sport that he is worthy of another full year in the WRC’s top class.
“Achieving this drive was the main goal of the 2023 season and I’m thrilled to return for a full season in the Puma next year,” said Fourmaux.
“I’m grateful to M-Sport, Ford and Red Bull for having the confidence and trust in me to give me another year at the top level and allow me to show my capabilities.”
It’s a familiar pattern for young M-Sport drivers. Elfyn Evans was dropped from the team’s WRC line-up in 2015, won the British title in 2016, and was promoted back to the top level in 2017, the year in which he clinched his first WRC victory. Tänak was also dropped entirely at the end of 2012, then returned to a full-time seat at the highest level with M-Sport in 2015 after a mix of WRC and WRC2 drives the year before.
“I’ve enjoyed being part of the development of the Fiesta Rally2 in 2023, and I think this will help me for the upcoming season with the Rally1 car. It will be a very interesting season for everybody, especially with the new regulations and points system.
“We’ve got a proper plan to work hard and deliver the best results we can, to support the team and get it back to where it deserves to be. I’m also very proud to be the only French driver competing the full season at the top level of WRC.”
Munster drove a Jourdan Serderidis-owned customer Puma to sixth place in Chile and followed that up with seventh on the Central European Rally.
He joined M-Sport last year after a multi-year stint as a Hyundai customer racing junior driver and sampled most of M-Sport’s rally offering in 2023, piloting Rally1, Rally2 and Rally3 machinery during the 2023 season.
“Driving almost the full season in WRC2 in 2023 has been a big positive, it’s the first time I had the chance to do nearly all the WRC events and get the mileage.
“The two drives in the Puma have helped me a lot with getting prepared for the Rally1 drive in 2024. Working within the M-Sport team has also been incredibly useful, you see the WRC2 and Rally1 team all within the same structure, so it’s good preparation for Rally1 to feel familiar and at home.
“I’m eager to start in Monte Carlo, and the goal for 2024 will be first to get some good results and increase the pace rally after rally, try not to make any mistakes and just get all the experience. We’re driving against world champions, so it will be a big challenge but I’m really looking forward to it.”
Team principal Richard Millener is excited about the team’s new look for 2024, and is confident of his young line-up’s chances of scoring some strong results.
“2024 will see us take a new and different approach compared to the last 12 months,” said Millener. “Developing and helping young talent prove themselves is an exciting way to tackle a WRC season and with several of the top drivers not competing across the full championship, we have opportunities to put in some strong and surprising performances.
“We still have all the ingredients to deliver results and the team is motivated to start again in a few weeks’ time with an almost blank paper on what we can achieve.
“Adrien and Grégoire are great guys who possess a lot of determination and motivation. A young team can create great energy and great things can come from that so I cannot wait to start working with them all again to show what we know we can achieve.”
M-Sport’s announcement completes next year’s full Rally1 line-up with eight cars set to contest the full season, consisting of three entries from both Hyundai and Toyota alongside the Ford squad’s two Pumas.
