After announcing that this year’s team star, 2019 world champion Ott Tanak, would return to Hyundai in 2024, Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport announced it would field two up-and-coming drivers for next season’s WRC.

Furmo was also a top M-Sport driver last year, but due to his relatively poor results for 2023, the Cumbrian team have opted for Pierre-Louis Loubet. This partnership will not continue next year and the Frenchman will likely continue his career in WRC2, driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

Thanks to his performances this year with the same team in WRC2 and winning the British Rally Championship, Furmo was favorite for one of two full-season seats with M-Sport in the top Rally 1 class. The Frenchman also drove a Puma Rally1 in the season finale, Rally Japan, to round off his outstanding year.

Together with Furmo, Gregoire Munster will complete the entire WRC program with M-Sport next year. The Belgian, who competes with a Luxembourg license, also drove in the Fiesta Rally2 this year and in the Chile and Central European Rally he competed in Iordanis Serderidis’ Puma Rally1 team. The team was extremely satisfied with his speed and has now been entrusted with the second factory Puma R1 for 2024.

WRC2 champion Andreas Mikkelsen was also rumored to be in line for a place with M-Sport, but the Norwegian opted to contest selected races in the third Hyundai i20 N Rally1. Oliver Solberg was also in the running, but the son of former champion Peter Solberg decided to stay in WRC2 and signed a new contract with the factory Skoda.

At Hyundai, the two full programs will be led by Ott Tanak and Thierry Neville, while Mikkelsen and Esapeka Lappi as well as Dani Sordo will take part in selected races with the i20 N Rally1. The Toyota duo will consist of Elfin Evans and Takamoto Katsuta, as Cale Rovanpera – for reasons of rest – has chosen to take part in a few and selected races this year, as has Sebastian Ozier.

The new WRC season begins with the Monte Carlo Rally from January 25th to 28th. After presenting the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 a few days ago, Hyundai and M-Sport will unveil their own new rally cars next January.