M-Sport has secured the services of Josh McErlean and Jon Armstrong for the 2026 World Rally Championship.
But that doesn’t mean there is no place for Mãrtiņš Sesks, or even Grégoire Munster.
The team’s press release confirming its full-time drivers made clear that “further announcements on M-Sport’s remaining line-up will be made soon”.
Munster contested all 14 rounds in 2025 with Sesks driving exactly half, but both remain in the frame for appearances in 2026 as team principal Richard Millener explained by making an appearance on SPIN, The Rally Pod.
“I think we can’t ignore the fact that Grég has two years experience of all the events with the right tires, he knows the team, everything like that. So of course we will keep an eye on things,” Millener said.
“There’s also opportunities with Jourdan [Serderidis], who owns a Puma. So, you know, there’s other opportunities potentially for the odd event. So I wouldn’t say we’ve split ways with Grég and we won’t be working with him again. Not at all.
Munster is still a potential option for M-Sport, but not for a full season
“The initial thing was obviously to get the two guys sorted as a base and build on that. So Grég is still an option. Certainly Rally2 without Jon [Armstrong], you know, he’s an experienced guy as well. So that could be interesting. And he’s very quick on Tarmac we’ve seen. So there’s selected events that could work.”
Munster told DirtFish, even before the season finale in Saudi Arabia, that he was open to dropping back to WRC2, although did not divulge what his potential options were.
As for Sesks?
“Of course it would be crazy for us not to be speaking with him,” Millener said. “We’re having multiple chats a lot of the time, but ultimately, being totally honest, we have to find the budget to make it work.
“And as you said earlier, the budget that we asked to find and that people contribute is a partial contribution to what we do. M-Sport is contributing a huge amount still, as well as other partners. And that’s why I said at the top that there’s multiple pieces of the puzzle to come together [to make it happen].
“And I think there is a bit of an incorrect way of looking at it online sometimes that it’s just the case of people thinking whoever pays the most is in and it’s like that, it’s not that at all. We’re working together as a group to make it happen and we’re all contributing, so we’ve all got to work and make it work properly.
“We want Mãrtiņš back in some form. You know the minimum would be to try and find a way to repeat what he did this season with the events he’s got experience on. But we’re just not in the final stages of discussions yet to be able to say that.
“So [he’s] firmly on the radar of course, but you know he also had a mixed season. The end of the year was good, Saudi was great, [but] some of his other events were a lot more tricky. So he’s certainly proven he’s got the pace again, but there will be a lot of places where we need to continue to learn and to improve together because honestly, there’s no overnight success for me.
“It’s finding a way of keeping these guys in the cars now and building year on year on what they’ve been doing and get them ready for 2027 and hopefully more opportunities for drivers.
“So yeah, we’re still working on things. Yesterday [Tuesday] was all about the good news for the two Irish guys and we didn’t want to go away from that and get drawn into other things.”
Listen to the full episode of SPIN, The Rally Pod now, where Millener dives deeper into M-Sport’s confirmed lineup for 2026, his thoughts on Project Rally One’s announcement, and life working at M-Sport with founder Malcolm Wilson splitting his time between the team and the FIA.
