During the Season 11 finale of of the Formula E World Championship, filming for Hankook Tyre’s new promotional project took place round the ExCeL London street circuit. During this, FEN’s Sam Smith conducted a special Q&A session with the 2023 British Rally Car Champion and current Hyundai WRC factory driver, Adrien Fourmaux.
Fourmaux took part in the exchange of cars, taking on DS Penske’s Maximilian Günther’s Gen3Evo car, whilst Günther had some fun driving the Hyundai WRC car. Two World Championships which are supplied by Hankook Tyre, however have two very different conditions and demands.
What did you know about Formula E before the project?
“I knew it was in the city mostly, it was like a Monoposto, but electric, with some aero but quite limited. And I knew that in the past there was a possibility to change the car, but now they don’t do it anymore.
“So this is an improvement with the technology. It’s a 45-minute race, it’s a bit like circuit racing, normally practice, qualifying and race. But apart from that, I know that there is a lot more strategies that they use and that I don’t know.”
What advice has Günther provided you on the Gen3Evo car?
“He did offer me a bit of some technical things on how they set the car because it’s all what I do. So I was quite interested in it. It was a play with to get the grip from the car, to get the optimise of it.
“Also on the throttle, they have a lot of strategy for the braking, like some helps for the braking. But also on the axle, like a traction control, which is not like fully traction control. So it’s many things that we also don’t have on the rally, but it was interesting to see. We know that they are also four-wheel drive, but not all the time. So that was interesting anyway.”
Do you feel a very different experience in the vehicle dynamics in the Gen3Evo car compared to your rally car?
“Yeah it’s very different. First of all, you are sitting on the floor compared to in a rally car. The visibility also is different. Now I can see the wheels, I can see the tyres when I’m driving. But there is also some similar things like how they set the car to get some stability for the aero. We also play a lot with this on the rally car.
“At the end, it’s still a car with four wheels, and suspension, etc. But the atmosphere is completely different. Sometimes they really fight for each corner, but there are 16 or 17 corners anyway. But for us, it’s completely different. It’s always a new corner.”
What advice have you given Günther before he drives your rally car?
“I did explain to him a little bit, that he will have much less grip, especially as the car is on gravel spec. But also he will have much more movement from the car, from the chassis.
“Also the atmosphere is different. You are seated on the side of the car and not in the middle. You are seated higher. There is much more movement, but you play also a little bit more with the car to make it rotate and to get the speed. Whereas on the Formula E car, we see that they really try to not be losing any energy by sliding.”
You must get a sixth sense as to how to understand what’s going on in the rubber, do you?
“Yes, we are playing actually quite a lot with the tyres about the tyre pressure, but also the compound, because the compound is important for us for the performance, at least for the longevity, but also the reactivity, the grip, depending on the first or second pass for us.
“We play also with the conditions like lower pressure will always normally bring some performance, except if you start to move too much with the tyres, but also at the same time, lower pressure, there is a risk of damaging a tyre, having a puncture.
“There is some rough events where we will drive with higher tyre pressure and with some smooth gravel, we will drive lower to get maximum performance. It’s always a compromise between performance and reliability.”
Can you imagine being around other drivers and being in the whole pack racing in the Gen3Evo car?
“Yes, I’ve never done that to be fair. Yes, I’ve done it, but on Trois-Rivières it was on ice, with electric cars also, but on ice, on the track, but to be chasing here with the speed in the city, on a track like here, I think it’s really something unique, and I think it’s really the exciting thing of the racetrack.”
What do you put the different pressures down to in terms of what you go through on a stage to what Max goes through in an EPrix?
“Yes, for sure. For us, we only fight with ourselves and the clock. So the best is to be faster, but only on the time. There are no places where we can block the over or push the over. I think the pressure here is to also hold the attack from the over, avoid some accidents that can appear also.
“It can be intense and it can happen something not related to you, where on the rally it’s normally related to us or road conditions, but when we do a mistake it’s by ourselves and not because somebody was pushing us or crashing into the car.”
Spectators love the noise of WRC cars and you get an experience of it from in the cockpit. Obviously a very different experience with Formula E…
“It’s quite disturbing, to be fair, because we get the speed, we can feel the speed coming, but we don’t have any noise coming, so information from your ears. So it’s really unique. You feel a bit less the speed, I would say, but also the atmosphere inside the cockpit is different.
“It’s the first time I driven a car with the halo. I would expect that it would disturb my view, but actually on the straight a little bit, but I can get used to that really easily and in the cornering you always turn your head or your eyes, so actually you never see it at all.”
Rally drivers are noted for going flat out pretty much all the time. In Formula E you have to manage the energy a little bit. Could you imagine doing that because it goes against your nature a little bit, doesn’t it?
“It depends. I think if you take in the championship in rally, we also have some rallies where we need to manage the car, and if you take, for example, Greece or Kenya, managing tyres, but also the reliability of the car for the transmission, the engine and things like that.
“So there is also this kind of thing, but for sure if you go to an Estonia rally or Finland rally, it’s flat out from the beginning to the end, where here sometimes you also have to manage a bit the tyres, the energy from the car to make sure that they get the boost to attack. So for sure it’s a kind of different strategy and I think it demands quite a lot of self-control.”
