Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria took fourth in Sardinia, the i20 N Rally1’s final event. Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
Adrien Fourmaux finished the 2026 World Rally Championship fifth in the standings, with 183 points and four podiums. He also finished it without a car. The Hyundai i20 N Rally1 that carried him to all of those results made its last start in Sardinia on October 4, and Hyundai has not yet said what, if anything, replaces it.
That leaves one of rallying’s more interesting driver-market questions in an odd place. Whether Fourmaux is quick enough has been settled. What hasn’t been settled is a short passage in the FIA’s homologation rules that decides who is allowed to build the car he would drive.
What 2026 proved
Start with the numbers. Fourmaux scored podiums in Kenya, Estonia, Paraguay and Chile. Hyundai as a whole took eight podiums and one win, Thierry Neuville’s in Portugal, on the way to second in the manufacturers’ standings with 440 points. Fourmaux supplied half of those podiums, making him the team’s most consistent visitor to the rostrum.
The detail worth noticing is the surface. All four of those podiums came on gravel, and none on asphalt. For a team choosing a driver to develop a new car, that split is useful information: his loose-surface speed is proven, while his tarmac results are the part of the CV still being written.
Sardinia, which became the season finale once Saudi Arabia lost its WRC status, summed up his year neatly. Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria had won three stages by Saturday night, but two punctures that day dropped them from second to fifth. They clawed back one place and finished fourth, 2m38.6s behind Oliver Solberg as Toyota swept the podium, and were third-fastest in the Sunday classification. In Hyundai’s post-event release, Fourmaux called his two years with the team fantastic, while admitting he never landed the first WRC win he was chasing. That win remains the missing line on his record.
The rule that writes the shortlist
From 2027, the top class runs to the FIA’s WRC27 technical regulations, approved by the World Motor Sport Council in December 2024. They are built around a €345,000 cost cap and a planned ten-year rules cycle, a deliberate reset after the Rally1 era.
To bulk up the grid while new WRC27 cars arrive, the WMSC added a bridge in June 2026. Rally2 cars homologated before December 31, 2026 can race in the top class in 2027 and 2028 if they carry the Rally2-WRC-Kit: new front fenders, a new front bumper and a rear aero device, capped at €7,500, with the cars running at 1,220kg.
Then comes the fine print. Only a manufacturer registered as a WRC constructor can homologate a kit. In the kit’s first season, that manufacturer must enter every round with at least two cars.
Read that as a driver and the market changes shape. A kit programme can’t be a quiet, one-car customer entry; whoever signs up is committing to a full season and at least two seats. And a privateer team can’t homologate a kit on its own. The manufacturer has to put its name on the paperwork.
Hyundai’s yes-or-no question
Hyundai already builds a Rally2 car, the i20 N Rally2, so the kit is its obvious route to staying in the top class without a WRC27 car. The rule turns that into a binary decision. If Hyundai registers and homologates a kit, it is on the hook for two cars at every round in 2027, and its most consistent podium finisher of 2026 would be the natural first name on the entry list. If it doesn’t, there is no Hyundai kit car in the top class for anyone to drive, Fourmaux included.
Hyundai’s own Sardinia reporting framed the weekend as the close of its Rally1 era, not as a goodbye to the championship. Until the company announces its 2027 plan, that is as far as the facts go.
The M-Sport alternative
The other open door is a familiar one. On October 1, Ford Racing confirmed a full factory return to the WRC with M-Sport from 2028. In 2027, M-Sport races a Ford Fiesta Rally2 fitted with the WRC kit, including new aero and a revised engine restrictor with updated electrical components. The Fiesta carries on into 2028 with full Ford backing, and an all-new car is due in 2029.
M-Sport hasn’t named its drivers. Fourmaux knows the building, having raced for the team before joining Hyundai. For him, the attraction wouldn’t be the 2027 car; a kitted Rally2 against Toyota’s WRC27 machinery looks like a development year at best. It would be a seat at the start of Ford’s factory programme, with a purpose-built car arriving two seasons later. For M-Sport, the attraction is a proven gravel podium finisher who doesn’t need an introduction to the staff.
What to watch
- Hyundai’s announcement. It decides whether at least two more top-class seats exist in 2027. Everything else in Fourmaux’s market follows from it.
- Kit homologations. Only Rally2 cars homologated by December 31, 2026 are eligible, and only registered manufacturers can put a kit on them. Watch who registers.
- M-Sport’s line-up. Ford’s involvement grows before the full factory deal starts, and the drivers signed now are effectively auditioning for the 2029 car.
- The first-round pace gap. The 2027 top class mixes WRC27 cars with kitted Rally2s. How far apart they are at the opener will tell you how much of any kit-car driver’s result is down to the driver. UK fans will be watching that on the BBC, under its new WRC deal.
Fourmaux spent 2026 showing he belongs near the front. His 2027 now depends on a manufacturer deciding to sign up for a full season with at least two cars. That decision belongs to the brands, not the driver.
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