Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux celebrated his first podium in the WRC at the 2024 Rally Sweden: proof that “you should never give up on your dreams “
Adrien Fourmaux had every reason to celebrate after the second round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) in Sweden: the Ford driver not only achieved the best result of his WRC career to date, but also his first podium with third place overall behind winner Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Elfyn Evans (Toyota).
This was a long-awaited dream come true for Fourmaux. “This shows that you can achieve it [the podium] one day if you never give up,” said the delighted 28-year-old Frenchman. “If you believe in a dream, you just have to follow it and ignore the people who tell you that you can’t achieve it.”
Already, after the second of 13 WRC rounds, Fourmaux has scored more points than in his first full Rally1 season in 2022. Last year, the Frenchman was subsequently relegated to M-Sport’s Rally2 program before getting a second chance in the top class of the WRC this year
Fourmaux is “very happy with it “
“It’s really great. It’s only my fourth rally on snow, so I can be really proud of it,” said Fourmaux, speaking to the English-language edition of Motorsport.com, “It’s my first podium in the premier class on the second rally of my Rally1 comeback, so I’m very happy with it.”
The result was also an important step forward in the overall standings. “We’re third in the championship, that’s crazy,” beams the Ford driver. “There’s still a long way to go, but I’m really happy because we had a lot of conditions with the snow and sometimes we didn’t have a good position on the track, and to finish on the podium after all that is fantastic.”
“To be honest, my target was fifth place and if I had finished there I would have been happy,” admits Fourmaux. “But to be in second place on Saturday and then finish third is great. “
Scary moment costs second place overall
On the eleventh stage, Fourmaux set the fourth fastest stage time of his career. A short time later, he had a scare when he collided with a snow bank on stage 15. The 28-year-old Frenchman then decided not to get involved in a battle with Evans and dropped back to third place at the finish.
“I’m normally a pretty calm person, so I don’t want to feel like everything is fine and we’re going to get a lot of podiums now,” Fourmaux remains realistic after his podium debut. “There’s one in the bag, but I have to prepare for the next rallies. “