It was signed off with victory. Adrien Fourmaux’s five year spell with M-Sport ended with a win on the Monza Rally Master Show – albeit with the caveat that his Rally1 car was the only of the trio of manufacturer entries running a hybrid unit.
Either way, it was a finale befitting a script from fiction. Goodbyes are always tough – but this was a thank you card to Dovenby Hall. One last trophy for the cabinet.
The same evening, he was on a flight to Germany to discover his new life in the World Rally Championship: Hyundai. A cynic would look at it as ditching the hard-working family team of hard-grafters for the well-paid corporate big guns.
It’s slightly more complicated than that. Sat in the modest team truck M-Sport had sent to Monza, Fourmaux was in a reflective mood. That this would be his final day hadn’t really set in yet.
“I don’t think I really realized it yet,” he told DirtFish. “But it’s been nice five years, you know?”
Fourmaux's enjoyed a stellar 2024 with M-Sport, claiming five podiums from 13 starts
Lying on a bench in the team truck was a glossy photo from this year’s Monte Carlo Rally. It’s from the Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes stage – “You know, the one where Tänak, Taka etc went off on the ice? But I knew to be careful there,” he explained.
Come the finish of the rally, he kneeled before the Puma and gave it a farewell kiss. This goodbye contained an emotional quality. Moving to Hyundai was not a monetary decision – though in a different sense, it also was.
“We were waiting for some call from Ford and it never came,” Fourmaux explained.
“Then at some point, I had a call with Malcolm [Wilson, M-Sport managing director] and Malcolm said: ‘Sorry Adrien, but I can’t afford you. So yeah, thank you, and we’ll see you next year with Hyundai overalls’. Overall, it was more like that than just saying to Malcom: ‘Ciao-ciao.’”
Fourmaux had made multiple trips back and forth to Ford Performance’s North Carolina facility to work on the Puma in a simulator setting. There was frustration at the Puma’s performance towards the end of the season which flared up with a disappointing Central European Rally, crashing out amid technical troubles.
M-Sport’s circumstances making it unable to keep pace with Toyota and Hyundai’s development pace meant both parties understood they wouldn’t remain a partnership into 2025.
A lack of development budget from Ford meant Malcolm Wilson couldn't offer Fourmaux what he wanted
“I wanted to get some development from Ford, which is not coming,” Fourmaux explained. “So then Malcom said: ‘I can’t give you what you want, so I think we’re going to have to split for now.’”
A first WRC win remained elusive after a strong start to the season that featured a run of podiums. Fourmaux had hoped dearly for a fairytale ending – going from the lowest rungs of the rallying ladder aboard two-wheel-drive Fiestas, all the way to rallying’s biggest prize aboard a full-fat Ford Rally1 car.
As it stands, that’s not going to happen. But life is rarely a fairytale. Fourmaux is being pragmatic about his Hyundai switch.
“I think the story would have been really nice to get my first victory and maybe fight for a championship with them again,” he said. “You know, to finish the story from where it starts to where it should finish.
“But at the end, we need some support from Ford, so I think this is the right move.”
