Alongside fielding two cars in the Rally1 class, the M-Sport Ford WRT will also begin their 2023 WRC2 assault at the FIA World Rally Championship season-opener in Rallye Monte-Carlo next weekend.
The Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux has been demoted down to the WRC2 team for the 2023 season after a poor season in the factory team last year but despite that his 2023 season got off with a positive start and the team is pleased to see him sticking around still.
Last weekend he won the Austrian Jänner Rally in a Ford Fiesta Rally2 car fielded by the team, on the same roads as the new Central European Rally will be using later this season and this result was a good confidence boost for the Frenchman.
Fourmaux has previously been running in the WRC2 class for the team in 2020 and the year before he rented a Ford Fiesta MKII R5 from the team, he took his maiden podium on the first outing in the series in 2019 Rallye Monte-Carlo and followed up with two more second-place finishes in Monte-Carlo in 2020 and 2021.
In the 2021 season, Fourmaux was promoted to do selected rallies in a Ford Fiesta WRC and claimed a career-best finish of fifth overall on his first attempt in Rally Croatia, followed by one more fifth-place finish in Safari Rally Kenya. Last year however it went downwards for him as he retired from 5 out of the 10 rallies he entered and restarted the rally on two others. He was forced to sit out from Greece, New Zealand, and Japan.
“Rallye Monte Carlo is, of course, the most famous in the Championship, and it’s always a fantastic way to start the season. We’re hoping for a good result on this rally to give us the best start possible for the WRC2 Championship.” Fourmaux said
“It’s one of the most difficult rallies of the season, with tricky and changing road conditions, and we should have the full effect with some snow and ice conditions too. I’m looking forward to getting back out in a Rally2 and seeing what we can achieve.”
