M-Sport’s driver line-up for the 2025 World Rally Championship is “totally up in the air” as speculation mounts around the future of its current lead driver Adrien Fourmaux.
The Ford squad often makes its moves in the driver market late into the year and this season is no different as it plans to field two Ford Puma Rally1 cars next year.
The decision to promote Fourmaux back to its Rally1 programme this year after a 2023 in Rally2 has paid dividends, with the Frenchman reeling off eight top-five finishes including four podiums (Sweden, Kenya, Poland and Finland).
The run has seen the Frenchman amass only six points fewer at this stage of the season compared to 2019 world champion Ott Tanak's 2023 tally, whom he replaced this year.
Fourmaux’s impressive rise has made the 29-year-old a valuable commodity in the service park with the 2023 British rally champion linked with a move to Hyundai to pilot the Korean marque’s third car for next season.
When asked about his team’s 2025 plans, M-Sport’s team principal Richard Millener maintains that “nothing has been signed with anybody” at the minute.
“It is totally up in the air and nothing is signed with anybody, all options on the table as usual for M-Sport at this point in the year,” Millener told Autosport. “We want the strongest possible team we can get for two cars for next year and that is the goal and what we continue to push on.”
The team wishes to agree a new deal with Fourmaux and has not given up on retaining his services. However, should it need to look elsewhere the squad appears to have a shortlist of options to fill its two seats.
Its other full-time driver Gregoire Munster delivered arguably his best Rally1 performance to date in Chile, where he ran as high as fourth, matching stage times at the top of the leaderboard, before finishing seventh.
The performance arrived after an inconsistent campaign to date which could bode well for his future, although MIllener says the Luxembourger should remain focused on the final two rallies of the season.
"He just needs to concentrate on one rally at a time now. He shouldn’t be thinking about how he makes sure he gets a drive next year,” added Millener. “It needs to be a case of just doing the best he can on each rally and see what comes at the end of the year.”
Another driver that M-Sport is keeping an eye on is Martins Sesks following his trio of Rally1 outings with the team. The 25-year-old’s drives to fifth in Poland followed by a podium challenge in Latvia before a mechanical issue struck has turned heads.
Sesks admitted after his latest outing in Chile that he is unsure where his future lies.
“Like he says he doesn’t know what is next and I don’t know what is next, there is a lot up in the air but it was good to give him that opportunity as well and now we need to see what happens in the next few weeks,” said Millener.
Outside of those two drivers, Autosport expects WRC2 title contenders Oliver Solberg and Yohan Rossel to be on the team’s 2025 driver shortlist.
