Jon Armstrong will graduate to the World Rally Championship and the Rally1 category, competing for M-Sport alongside fellow Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Josh McErlean in 2026.
Armstrong has contested the European Rally Championship with M-Sport for each of the past two seasons, steering a Ford Fiesta Rally2 to back-to-back victories in Croatia and Wales to end 2025.
The 31-year-old had harbored ambitons to make it to WRC2 for 2026, but instead will drive a Puma Rally1 on all 14 rounds of the championship alongside co-driver Shane Byrne.
“I’m obviously very grateful for the opportunity to drive a Rally1 car,” Armstrong said. “It’s something I’ve worked towards from a very young age, so to actually be able to compete in the top tier of rallying is definitely a dream come true. Of course, there have been years where things didn’t go our way and we weren’t sure if it would ever happen, but we’ve had a very strong season in ERC, showed our potential, and naturally you then want to see what you can do in the World Rally Championship.
“I’m very happy and extremely grateful to M-Sport, who I’ve been driving with for most of my rally career, and also to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy – without them we definitely wouldn’t be here. We’re really looking forward to the year ahead. There are going to be a lot of good times and definitely some challenges, but I think we’ve shown that we can rise to those challenges, so we just need to stay strong, enjoy it, and keep pushing forward.”