Fourmaux: Finishing Sweden the main target after WRC Monte crash

The Frenchman is eager to kickstart his 2022 season in Sweden this weekend after an error resulted in a frightening crash on the third stage in Monte Carlo last month.

Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria were lucky to walk way without injury after their Ford Puma was catapulted into ravine after a collision with a rock face.

Such was the damage to the car, the team elected to build up a brand new Puma for this weekend’s trip to Sweden, with Fourmaux choosing to help the team with the build at M-Sport’s Cumbria base. 

Looking ahead to his first top flight outing on snow, the 27-year-old says his main focus is to reach the finish and bank valuable championship points. 

“I think the team and I are quite happy to say I need to find the confidence back and I need to finish the rally to get the experience of this surface, as this will be my first WRC event on snow with a Rally1 car,” said Fourmaux, who finished last of the Rally1 runners in Thursday’s shakedown.

“It is quite a big challenge and the rally is really fast so I will just finish and then we will see our position then.”

Adrien Fourmaux working on WRC Puma by M-Sport

Photo by: M-Sport

It is a view shared by M-Sport team principal Richard Millener, who has hopes Fourmaux can challenge for a top five overall finish in this year’s championship if he can score points consistently. 

"I don’t think this is a situation to really need to give orders, he understands what he needs to do,” said Millener. 

“We appreciate it is hard to drive at this level and compete at the top, but coming away from Monte Carlo with zero points is the worst case scenario. 

“It is important for him get his season back on track because we think he should be looking for a top five championship finish at the end of the year, but to do that you have to score points on every round. He wants to prove again that he can get back to where he needs to be.”

Fourmaux heads into Sweden following a pre-event test on snow last week, where he joined teammates Craig Breen and Gus Greensmith.

“It was a really good test day last week,” Fourmaux added. 

“Honestly it is difficult to know the pace we will have on this rally. It is the first time we will be on snow in this car so it will be interesting, we hope to be competitive for sure.”

Rally Sweden begins on Friday with seven competitive stages awaiting the crews.