2025 WRC Rally Finland: Fourmaux’s unusual Formula E preparations set for Baltic test

It’s not often a driver tackles the fast Finnish forests in a World Rally Championship car one day, and then a Formula E single seater the next. But that’s exactly how Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux preparation for this week’s Rally Finland unfolded.

July has been a whirlwind month for Fourmaux. The Frenchman got married, a week before WRC Rally Estonia. Four days after finishing fifth in Estonia he flew to Finland to test his Hyundai i20 Rally1 and then 24 hours later found himself sitting in the cockpit of a Formula E all-electric single seater at the London E-Prix.

Up until last week Fourmaux’s circuit racing experience has been limited. Unlike most racing drivers, Fourmaux didn’t enjoy a karting career in his formative years.

In fact, his only single seater experience arrived in 2019 when he drove a Formula 4 car, alongside now Racing Bulls Formula 1 star Isack Hadjar, as part of a French Federation of Automobile Sport (FFSA) event.

However, Fourmaux can now claim to have sampled a Formula E car having driven the machine around the unique 1.3-mile indoor/outdoor London E-prix course at the Excel London convention centre. The drive was part of a crossover stunt organised by tyre manufacturer Hankook, which supplies rubber to both the WRC and Formula E.

While Fourmaux drove the Gen3 Formula car, capable of producing 400kW (536 horsepower) weighing in at under 800kg, seven-time Formula E race winner and DS Penske driver Max Günther jumped behind the wheel of Fourmaux’s 1.6 litre, turbo charged Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car.

“It was really nice. We had a good pace, and I think Max was enjoying the rally car. For me, it was quite nice," Fourmaux told DAZN News.

“The car is really different, there is a lot of power for sure, but the braking efficiency is also quite interesting. For the corners you really need to get the tyres warm as expected. That was good fun. The halo doesn’t disturb me too much but for safety, for sure it is better to have it.   

“It is not so heavy, it weighs less than 800 kilograms and for sure the battery and the motors are the heaviest part of the car. There is a lot of aero even though it doesn’t look like it when you look at the car, but it is a bit like the Rally1 car as we have aero that you cannot see.

“There is no power steering which means the steering is quite heavy, but what surprised me was how many slow corners there are. It is quite twisty but it was good fun. 

“It is good to see and discover a new championship and speak with different drivers. It is a completely different approach to rallying. 

“The Formula E drivers really follow the instructions for the team when driving the cars. For every corner they have a different setting for the braking, the energy regeneration, and for the brake balance. For us it is not possible to do that in the rally car.”

This week Fourmaux will be back in more familiar surroundings of his Hyundai hoping to build on a strong first showing driving the car on smooth gravel in Estonia earlier this month. Fourmaux finished third in Finland last year driving for M-Sport-Ford. 

“I’m feeling good, the test was good and we had some positives from the car from some development parts which we can use in Finland after our comments from Estonia, so that is good,” he added.

“I had a small incident (roll) but actually we were able to drive again after [the crash] and we did some good mileage.”

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