The rookie WRC driver aiming to continue Loeb and Ogier's legacies

The World Rally Championship has enjoyed an embarrassment of riches when it comes to French drivers over the years. In fact the sport has been largely dominated for almost two decades by two of the nation’s finest ever vintages - Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier.

Between them they have amassed 16 WRC titles, Loeb becoming the WRC’s greatest ever driver winning nine consecutive championships from 2004-2012, before he was succeeded by Ogier as top dog, winning seven world titles from 2013-2018 and 2020.

The pair have ripped up the record books winning a combined 132 rallies from the 307 events since Loeb’s debut in 1999, equating to more than a third of rallies held since.

However, next year will see a changing of the guard as Ogier looks set to call time on his full-time WRC career at the end of this season, and participate in a part rally/circuit racing campaign with Toyota as the WRC ushers in a new hybrid future.

So who will fill that void and continue that fine French legacy that has been carved out by Loeb and Ogier?

Step forward Adrien Fourmaux. The 26-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise up the rallying ladder, joining the WRC’s top tier with M-Sport Ford this year just four years on from his first proper taste of rallying in the junior category of the French Rally Championship. It is a shot to stardom that is quite rare, turning many heads along the way - in particular M-Sport, who took a punt on Fourmaux last year.

One of those impressed is none other than the WRC’s greatest, Loeb, and he knows a thing or two about being a top rally driver.

Adrien Fourmaux, M-Sport Ford WRT

Photo by: M-Sport

“It is quite rare to see drivers arrive at the top level of WRC and be able to set some good times and he [Adrien] has done it and he only has little experience,” Loeb tells Autosport. “For sure he has a lot of talent and he is on a good way to be one of the next top drivers in the WRC. It is nice to have another French driver coming after me and Ogier, so we will see.”

And after finishing fifth on his WRC debut at Rally Croatia in April, M-Sport team principal Richard Millener said he could see shades of Ogier in Fourmaux’s display.

“It’s been a very impressive debut, and you can certainly see a resemblance to Ogier in the way he conducts himself. The future of the sport is looking pretty good, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how he progresses with more time in the car,” said Millener.

“There’s no doubting Adrien’s talent behind the wheel, and watching the way the two of them [co-driver Renaud Jamoul] work I can already see glimpses of Seb and Julien [Ingrassia].”

"I tried two times to get the fastest time. In Croatia it started with two second fastest times and then the same happened in Portugal and in Kenya again. I said to Seb [Ogier] 'can you let me have one, it is always you!'" Adrien Fourmaux

That’s a big seal of approval for a driver who has contested only three events in rallying’s premier league. So what's all the fuss about?

Fourmaux first showcased his potential in 2016 when he won France’s renowned Rallye Jeunes talent-spotting scheme. Two years later he claimed the junior title in the French Rally Championship driving a Ford Fiesta R2. A move to WRC2 beckoned in 2019 beginning with a run to 10th overall and second in class on debut at the Monte Carlo Rally. Then, a second class podium arrived in Great Britain, and that was enough to convince M-Sport to grab hold of this burgeoning talent.

After finishing third overall in WRC2’s shortened 2020 COVID-19 impacted season, Fourmaux was handed a golden opportunity to share M-Sport’s second WRC Fiesta entry with highly-rated Finn Teemu Suninen.

Adrien Fourmaux, Renaud Jamoul, M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta Rally2

Photo by: M-Sport

Three events in and the Frenchman has lived up to the billing, finishing all three outings inside the top six. That's a decent return for a rookie going up against the likes of established names such as Ogier, 2019 WRC champion Ott Tanak, Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans.

He’s also racked up a maiden stage win which arrived on the notoriously brutal Safari Rally - a feat not to go unnoticed especially considering it was his first time on Kenya’s savage roads.

It could be easy for all this sudden success and praise to affect a young driver’s development but for Fourmaux he is taking it in his stride.

“I am just trying to do my career and there is a really long way to go,” Fourmaux tells Autosport. “It is very nice for me to hear the positive words, but I just want to get my head down, there is still a long way to go. Two and a half years before I was still driving a two-wheel drive car, so it is a really good progression indeed. I’m learning a lot and this is really important, and I’m still improving.”

In addition to his skills behind the wheel, Fourmaux has already started to show his likeable character away from the cockpit that will only serve him well as he grows his fanbase and endears himself to sponsors. His playful jousting with Ogier on Twitter during the Safari Rally, as the latter denied the Ford driver a maiden stage win in Kenya before finally triumphing, is a perfect example.

“I try to be myself and let’s talk about me as a nice story, so I think it is good,” he says.

“You know I tried two times to get the fastest time. In Croatia it started with two second fastest times and then the same happened in Portugal and in Kenya again. I said to Seb [Ogier], 'can you let me have one, it is always you’. But one stage or two stages after I did it and I was really happy. It was a good story especially with it being in Safari.”

Adrien Fourmaux, Renaud Jamoul, M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC

Photo by: M-Sport

He’s also proved that he can see the bigger picture outside of rallying too having led the way on a crowdfunding scheme to raise funds for the Belgian Red Cross, to help those affected by the devastating flood that has ravaged parts of the country this summer.

All of these aspects combined have been duly noted by his employers that have been blown away by their young star’s performances. It also appears M-Sport is set to retain his services next year as the WRC enters a new hybrid era, with the British squad fielding the all-new Ford Puma that Fourmaux has helped develop.

“The fact that it is only four years since he first sat in a rally car and to do the times he has been doing, it is quite exceptional considering how little seat time he has had in a WRC car,” M-Sport boss Malcom Wilson tells Autosport.

“It is quite rare to see drivers arrive at the top level of WRC and be able to set some good times and he [Adrien] has done it and he only has little experience" Sebastien Loeb

"Rally is so much more about experience so we certainly are not expecting him to be winning rallies next year, but if he can carry on with the progression that we have seen it is not going to be long, and hopefully he will be mixing it with the established guys.”

It’s been a hugely promising start but how does Fourmaux get to the next level and become a podium contender? In the eyes of Loeb, who has been offering advice to this young charge, it is simple.

“I think he has nothing special to do it is just getting the experience and finding the rhythm,” says Loeb. “He just need to do his job as well as possible and I’m sure it will come quickly.”

Those words could prove ominous to Fourmaux’s WRC rivals, as the championship may be losing a Sebastien next year, but it is gaining a rapidly improved Adrien.

It is still too early to accurately predict if Fourmaux will live up to the hype, but it seems Loeb and Ogier’s legacy is in safe hands.

Adrien Fourmaux, Renaud Jamoul, M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images