Adrien Fourmaux that the simulator has helped him to build his confidence for the rallies, but also M-Sport Ford mechanics to make the Puma more competitive.
The Frenchman lost his place from Ott Tanak and Pierre-Louis Loubet at M-Sport Ford while the team chose him to have a WRC2 programme in 2023. The British squad decided to trust two youngsters to lead them this season with Fourmaux returning back to the wheel of the Puma as the #1 driver. He impressed the rallying community with his second place on Saturday classification in Sweden and his maiden WRC podium two months ago. His good performance continued at Safari Rally Kenya where he secured his second consecutive podium of the year after his finish at the top three again. On the other hand, he was very consistent in Croatia, but he was not able to match the pace of Thierry Neuville, Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier and finished fifth overall. However, he was fighting with the 2019 WRC Champion, Ott Tanak, for the fourth place of the rally throughout last weekend, but his chances were over when he hit an anticut device and had to complete Stage 18 after fifteen minutes due to the fact that he had to repair the damaged steering arm of his car. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that he took his first ever Powerstage win in Croatia and took the five bonus points from PS.
"I’m really happy because we have come really far with the car since Monte Carlo", Fourmaux said.
"The car wasn’t good at all on tarmac, we were struggling so much but we have done a lot of development in the simulator and on the test.
"We were searching a little bit at the beginning of the rally but after Friday afternoon where I did the second fastest time, I found a really good set up.
"We have made a big step but there are things we still need to improve and we are working on it to gain some time.
"It is really positive and we are much closer.
"We were fighting with Ott all the weekend.
"The simulator is working and I’m really pleased we have done a good job with the car, and it has been working on this rally.
"We are using it as a tool to make the car faster and it is working".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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