Adrien Fourmaux has asserted that he will begin the 2025 World Rally Championship season with equal status to his world champion team-mates Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak.
Hyundai has never had three full-time drivers in its WRC line-up – though in 2016 it came close, fielding Neuville and Dani Sordo in all rounds across its primary and secondary entries and Hayden Paddon contested all but the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.
Since 2017 it has operated a rotating driver policy, aimed at maximizing its manufactures’ title hopes by taking advantage of better road order position for part-time drivers. Hyundai won the manufacturers’ championship in 2019 and 2020 with five drivers sharing its three cars.
Team principal Cyril Abiteboul said at the start of 2024 that Esapekka Lappi, one of the drivers who shared Hyundai’s third car this season, had a role “to support Thierry and Ott in the championship.”
But Fourmaux has indicated that equal treatment to Neuville and Tänak was a prerequisite of accepting Hyundai’s contract offer for the 2025 season.
The last time Hyundai had anything close to three full-time drivers was 2016
“That was some of the conditions I was asking to Hyundai, is to give me the chance to be equal as the two of them,” Fourmaux told DirtFish. “And they want to do that, so that’s really good. It completely changes the strategy for the third car.
“This year I had no strategy and I was scoring a lot of points for the manufacturers’ and the drivers’ championship. So I don’t know why they should have a strategy at the beginning of the year. I think at the beginning everybody had the same and after a few rallies then you start to get some strategy for the beginning.”
“My aim is just to do my job like this year with M-Sport and enjoy all the driving, do my best and score good points for the drivers’ championship, which will also bring some good points for the manufacturer. So then for me, it’s the same goal as this year.”
Fourmaux has traded M-Sport for Hyundai with designs on being able to fight for wins and titles
Toyota should retain a road order advantage for its third points-scoring car at select rounds of the championship next season, with Sébastien Ogier taking on a part-time season that’s expected to make up seven of the 14 rounds of the 2025 calendar.
Though Hyundai has only confirmed three drivers so far, it indicated when announcing Fourmaux that it “continues to assess further possibilities with its current crews for 2025,” suggesting that there remains potential for a fourth car at some events.
But Fourmaux dismissed the notion that he could be de-selected from manufacturers’ points duty for a potential fourth car that takes advantage of road order dynamics, should one be entered.
“I don’t see why they should remove me to score points because at the end of this year I did score more points than their third drivers,” said Fourmaux. “Maybe they can ask Ott! Or Thierry? Depends where you are.”
