We’ve only known Jon Armstrong will be joining M-Sport’s World Rally Championship lineup in a Rally1 car for 24 hours.
He’s only known a few hours more than that. The news was as big a surprise to the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver as it was to any of us, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel ready for it.
“OK, maybe the natural progression is to go through WRC2, but I’m also not that young anymore,” Armstrong tells DirtFish.
“I think for us to go to Rally1 is a bigger step, but it’s a good opportunity for me to really prove to myself what I can do.”
Lining up alongside Josh McErlean who’ll enter his second season in Rally1 machinery, 31-year-old Armstrong knows the scale of the challenge ahead. But persistent belief that this chance would come has finally paid dividends.
How Armstrong found out
Armstrong visited M-Sport on Tuesday oblivious to the fact he was to become a full-time Rally1 driver
Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne joined McErlean and his co-driver Eoin Treacy at M-Sport’s Dovenby Hall headquarters on Tuesday for a staff Christmas lunch, talking on stage about their European Rally Championship campaign in a Ford Fiesta Rally2 that netted them two victories and second place in the standings.
What they didn’t know is they’d be informed of Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy patron John Coyne’s plan to give them a full Rally1 season for 2026.
“It’s one of those moments where I think you need to pinch yourself,” Armstrong reflects. “But also it’s something that you always dream of when you get into rallying at a young age. You want to give it a go because the ultimate passion is to be able to drive in the world championship one day.
“OK, for me, there were sort of kickbacks in many scenarios where you’re like, ‘is this ever really going to happen?’ But thankfully the last two to three years have been very good. We’ve been building momentum and yeah to be going into 2026 as an M-Sport World Rally Team driver and in a Puma Rally1 is something pretty special.
“It’s a pretty crazy feeling to actually achieve that and I’m very grateful for being able to have this opportunity. There’s a lot of stuff to take in, but I’m just really looking forward to Monte Carlo now.”
Armstrong reveals that he knew he was destined for a WRC program next year, but thought the best he’d get is select Rally1 events alongside a Rally2 program.
“Obviously I knew whenever things weren’t very clear that there was something brewing,” he continues, “but we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves. And quite literally, yesterday we went to Dovenby Hall and we got our head shots done and it was just me, Shane, Eoin and Josh we’re looking at each other like, ‘what’s going on here?’ Surely it can’t be…’
“But then we went down to the museum showroom where all of the cars are on display. Malcolm and Rich were doing speeches and then they brought us up on stage and we spoke a little bit about our season and how good it’s been with the Rally2, and Josh and Eoin did the same [about their WRC campaign].
“Then Malcolm was like ‘Jon, you’ve got a very good program next year in the WRC as you know, but you don’t know what you’re doing it in, do you?’ And I go ‘no.’ And then he was like, ‘well, thanks to what we’ve been able to put together with John Coyne, you’re going be going in a Rally1.’ And I was just like, ‘what? that’s crazy!’
“It’s hard to put into words because I think for me, just sort of the culture where I grew up, we’re all quite like calm and collected. If you get too excitable, you’re a bit of a weirdo from Fermanagh. It’s just bred into us that you wouldn’t get super emotional, but for sure it was a dream moment.”
Armstrong has driven the Rally1 car already
It wasn't much, but Armstrong has already sampled the Puma Rally1
Armstrong has no competition experience in Rally1, but he did reveal that he’s driven the Puma already this year in Greystoke – M-Sport’s test facility.
“It’s obviously a bit different than a Rally2 car,” he says, “but when they’ve removed the hybrid it obviously takes a lot of the complexity out of it. So it’s a little bit more easy compared to before.
“I’ve actually driven the car once this year in Greystoke when there was a tire test going on. So I didn’t do too many runs, but what stood out to me was it was quite easy to understand straight away. It seemed like the setup in the car was quite good. And yeah, I just really enjoyed the experience to be honest, just to drive Rally1 – the speed of the cars and the aero. You can really feel it giving you extra grip.
“Comparing times also our pace was quite good for the lack of time we had in the car, so I think that was a good starting point for what we’ve ended up with yesterday – the fact that we got a chance from Malcolm to try the car and in the end up it was a very successful short taster session.
“I think winning two rallies in the ERC at international level, finishing second in Barum, those results really have helped us go on this journey as well.
“The car will be fun to drive and there’s a lot of things to still learn and understand. Over the coming weeks, there’ll be more trips to M-Sport to try and gain as much knowledge as we can and learn the car, and obviously M-Sport have the test track there as well so hopefully we’ll get a bit of shakedown work and then we’ll have a test before Monte Carlo to see how it is on Tarmac.
Armstrong has a strong record on Tarmac, but felt comfortable in the Puma on gravel very quickly
“I’ve not driven it on Tarmac yet but I like Tarmac driving so I’m hoping that it will come quite nicely and, like I said, Greystoke felt so nice it makes me quite positive about the gravel as well.
“Obviously the world championship is primarily loose surface, so you’ve got to really double down on that surface and try to do the best that you can.”
Armstrong’s expectations
What makes Armstrong’s promotion unique is while he remains a Rally1 rookie, he’s over 30 and has plenty of international rallying experience streching back nearly a decade – having driven in Junior WRC, WRC2, and the ERC for the past three years.
Of next year’s 14 WRC rallies, he has competed on seven of them before with further experience as route note crew in Monte Carlo and Japan as well.
Knowing what to expect from him is therefore harder than other rookies, like team-mate McErlean in 2025 for example.
Armstrong himself admits it’s “difficult” to judge because “from a personal side you want to just put in the best performances that you can but at the same time you don’t know fully what the level is”.
Armstrong wants to be on the pace where he can, but the priority is experience
He adds: “It’s obviously very very high – they’re the best drivers in the world and there’s not too many people that get to that level so it’s going to be difficult to be on the pace right away. But I’m sure, similar to what we’ve done with the Rally2 car and the ERC, we had a bit of time to really understand where the pace comes from and then you get closer and closer and closer.
“So that’s sort of what the aim will be: just to gain experience. When you’ve got a full season, then that’s fantastic for sort of not bedding yourself in because it’s not really how… I don’t know, it’s not how I sort of go about my rallying, but I definitely don’t like just go in silly either. I like try to figure things out, try to build a pace up and if things feel good, hopefully the times will come.
“Obviously we’ll try to work with Josh and Eoin to improve each other as well. We’re in a very unique scenario where we’re basically team-mates in a team, but also team-mates from our academy as well that are supporting us. So, yeah, we need to try and improve each other.
“And obviously there’ll be battles, but that’s good, I think. And yeah, we’ll just see how it develops throughout the season. But in terms of goals, it’s so difficult to say, but it’d be nice to be on the pace now and again, if that’s the sort of minimum goal, let’s say. But for sure, you’re looking to actually get some solid results as well.”
Armstrong says he’s carrying “good confidence” from his improvements in the ERC into 2026, but knows what he’s up against.
“It’s exciting,” he concludes. “Going up to the mountains from Monaco on that Thursday night in the dark, there’ll be butterflies in the stomach. But you’ve just got to crack on with it.
“We’re thrown a bit into the deep end, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve done Monte Carlo route note crew three times but I’ve never done the rally so to go there with a Rally1 for your first time is pretty unique. You just got to try and swim the best you can rather than sink, so that’s what the aim is.”
