It's been a tough start to the year for Adrien Fourmaux, but the Frenchman feels he's on the road to finding his focus
Photography by Red Bull
Words by David Evans & Colin Clark
Were you out walking around Coma Pedrosa, Casamanya or any of Andorra’s high peaks last week? If you were, and you spotted a fellow hiker wearing a hefty winter coat under the scorching sun, Adrien Fourmaux would like to explain.
Hyundai’s star Frenchman is doing everything he can to turn potential into points and points into podiums. He’s shown plenty of promise. He’s led rallies, he’s won more stages than his world champion team-mate Thierry Neuville, but he’s also made too many mistakes. His roll last time out in Sardinia raised concerns from Hyundai’s technical director François-Xavier Demaison.
“I understand,” Demaison told DirtFish, “he wants to win a rally so much that when it’s something, when any problem happens, it’s just becoming a catastrophe.”
Fourmaux gets that and, in an engaging and exclusive interview with DirtFish, outlined how he’s working to walk that fine line and become a world rally winner.
Fourmaux's frustrations have led to him standing at the side of the road too often so far this season
“We need a little bit of success, that’s all,” he said. “I think we need to stay out of some trouble. I think Portugal was [a] technical [issue], in Sardinia it’s my fault – after the puncture I was really down and I lost focus for a few things and I was just disappointed.
“I just need to stay focused when I have trouble and here it’s going to be a good example. I’m sure we’ll have our own trouble so it’s going to be a good practice for me.
“You know me, I always try to react when something happens, and I did work a bit between rallies, between these two rallies. It’s going to be, I think it’s going to be okay. I’m getting closer. I’m getting close [to finding the balance].”
Asked for more specifics on that work, he added: “Just [to] accept the frustration that you can get sometimes. I’m working with a sports psychologist because, at the end, the rally is a mental game.
Fourmaux made a near-perfect start to his time with Hyundai, scoring a podium third place in Monte Carlo
“It’s small details. At this level, everybody is good. It’s just small details and it’s a big mental game. And yeah, this is where you need to be strong and you need to accept things and also stay focused for the whole rally.”
Fourmaux, who started his season with a sensational Monte Carlo podium on his Hyundai debut, admitted focus will likely be hard to find in Greece this week.
We’re back to the winter coat and the summer sun.
“When you get hot in the car,” he said, “it’s difficult to get the focus on the pace notes, on the road. And it’s going to be really warm this time – I think the hottest since a long time. I did train by doing some biking, but also hiking with some jackets under the sun in Andorra, so it was quite warm.
“I tried my best to optimize my chance to get prepared. But at the end, you cannot be fine. The only thing, the best thing is to train normally in the sauna, but we’re going to be more active than in the sauna.
“The big thing is the focus with the temperature and it’s really demanding because the stages are quite technical, quite rough, really rough, some places there will be some rocks so we need some action time.
“It’s going to be really hard for the crews and I guess on Saturday it’s going to be even worse because we’re going to have one day already. All those things added, it’s a big, big one.”
And, on this big, big one, Fourmaux could really use a big, big result.
Words:David Evans & Colin Clark
Tags: Acropolis Rally Greece, Adrien Fourmaux, François-Xavier Demaison, Hyundai, Hyundai Motorsport, Monte Carlo Rally, Thierry Neuville, World Rally Championship, WRC 2025
Publish Date June 26, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/06/S5Yqizul-Fourmaux-260625-780x520.jpeg June 26, 2025
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