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WRC star admits major concern over future: "I don’t have a drive" - RallyJournal.com

RallyJournal.com · Toni Heinonen · 2026-09-03T10:36:02+00:00 · nguồn gốc

French star Adrien Fourmaux knows exactly how complicated the situation is for the team – and for him personally. Of the current WRC teams, only Toyota has built a car complying with the WRC27 regulations for next year’s top class. M-Sport Ford, meanwhile, is developing a Rally2 WRC Kit that will allow it to compete against Toyota in the top category with its Rally2 car. Hyundai is not building a new car and, based on the information currently available, is not investing in a Rally2 WRC Kit either. However, it remains possible for a Rally2 car to challenge for leading positions on WRC events, particularly from a favourable road position on gravel rallies. The performance gap between WRC27 and Rally2 cars is no longer the same as the one between the current Rally1 machinery and Rally2 cars. Strong rumours suggest that Hyundai will not continue as an official WRC factory team next year. The latest report came from Spanish newspaper AS. The article continues below the embed. The information hardly came as a shock to Fourmaux, who is in his second season with the team. “Everyone has known for a long time that Hyundai hasn’t developed a new car and that the manufacturer won’t be competing in the same form next year. So there’s nothing new in that for me,” Fourmaux said in an interview with the French Rallye-sport website. “If Hyundai decides to run Rally2 cars through a private team while retaining strong technical resources and quality engineers, then from my point of view as a driver, it doesn’t change much. We’ve seen it before with Kronos or M-Sport, and even in rally-raid with Prodrive and Dacia,” Fourmaux noted. What frightens Fourmaux, however, is the possibility that his job could be at risk. He has already made his breakthrough at the highest level of the sport, and a maiden career victory appears to be just around the corner. Although the Frenchman has proved his ability at the top level, he is still waiting for an offer for the coming season. “Unfortunately, as things stand, I have nothing for 2027. I don’t have a drive, and that worries me a lot,” Fourmaux said bluntly. “Toyota already has a lot of drivers and it looks like they’re already full. Adding another one seems complicated to me. So I really don’t know where I could go.” Fourmaux would like to remain in the top category, but at present the situation looks far from promising for him. “If I have to spend a year in Rally2 as a transition before returning to the top category afterwards, why not? Like (Sébastien) Ogier did with Skoda (in the 2012 season) while waiting for the Polo. But if it’s a case of dropping back to Rally2 with no prospects for the future, that’s not very motivating,” Fourmaux said. The WRC recently gained a new promoter, which presented its vision during last weekend’s Rally Paraguay. Fourmaux hopes things will begin moving forward soon now that one piece has fallen into place. “We know that a lot of manufacturers were waiting for news about the promoter before making decisions. Hyundai is one of them. We’ll have to see what announcements might be coming. The promoter seems confident that new manufacturers will join,” Fourmaux said. Read also: New WRC boss lays out his plans and makes firm promise to rally fans