Adrien Fourmaux is happy to aid Tänak's championship cause - but not at all costs
Photography by Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry & David Evans
Adrien Fourmaux is happy to help Hyundai team-mate Ott Tänak in this year’s World Rally Championship title race – but not at all costs.
Tänak is the lead Hyundai driver in the championship, sitting 18 points adrift of leader Elfyn Evans with four events still remaining. Thierry Neuville and Fourmaux are 48 and 127 points behind respectively.
Fourmaux had been on track to finish as the highest Hyundai at last weekend’s Rally del Paraguay until a late rain shower on the powerstage compromised him and dropped him two places to fourth.
That placed the Frenchman between his two team-mates Neuville (third) and Tänak (fifth), but Hyundai later elected to retire Fourmaux’s i20 N Rally1 “to offer more flexibility in car setup for Rally Chile”.
However that did benefit Tänak, who moved up a position and therefore gained an extra two world championship points, while not compromising Hyundai which still got the same points for cars in third and fourth places.
Fourmaux also aided his team-mate’s cause at the previous round in Finland, after pulling off at the Kakaristo junction in Finland with a puncture instead of completing the rally. That promoted Tänak into 10th place overall and therefore gained him a championship point.
Fourmaux told DirtFish he is happy to give Tänak extra points if required, but with some conditions.
“We did it in Finland, I will do it again,” Fourmaux said. “For me, the championship is over, so I’m here also to help him if I can, so I will do it.
“I think that we still need some conditions to make it,” he added, “because I think if we were second today, I would not let him pass. But, you know, let’s see. He will have to be behind in a good position, so let’s see.”
Fourmaux’s willingness to help Tänak is borne out by the fact he cannot realistically win the championship for himself.
For Neuville, the situation is more complicated. He effectively ruled himself out of the race after last month’s Rally Finland, but mathematically he is not out of the picture completely.
Neuville still has a shot at this year's title - albeit a very slim one
Asked by DirtFish if he expected any direction from Hyundai to start favoring Tänak, Neuville said: “No, not at the moment. As long as my chances are still open, we have to go for it.
“I mean, the best example is this weekend again and the turnaround you can have on not only one day but on one single stage.”
Tänak meanwhile doesn’t appear to be pushing his team to start backing him fully.
“I think the biggest thing we were missing was performance, so together we need to work for that. So I think that’s the priority,” Tänak told DirtFish.
Asked directly if he would ask the team to strategically look at team orders now, he replied: “Yeah, I definitely ask them to give me a better feeling in the car.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Adrien Fourmaux, Ott Tanak, Rally del Paraguay, Rally del Paraguay 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date September 2, 2025 DirtFish
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