Now the World Rally Championship’s gravel season is about to enter full swing, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Mārtiņš Sesks in the second half of the 2026 season. But Sesks is focused on objectives beyond demonstrating why he deserves a full-time place at the WRC’s top level.
Much of the hype that transformed two cameo drives into part-time programs with M-Sport was generated by Rally Latvia, where he fought for a podium finish against Sébastien Ogier and company in 2024. That seismic moment in Latvian rallying became a call-to-action to revamp the country’s fortunes at domestic level.
“That’s the thing,” Sesks told DirtFish. “We really felt that after WRC Latvia two years ago – not only me but the organizers team of Rally Latvia – we saw the interest from new drivers, from parents of new drivers and then the question is: you have the interest and then not all of them are associated with some driver, or it doesn’t run in their family.
“So they need someone who gives the first steps of what you need to do or what car you need, what rallies do you need, what you need to drive in the rally in the first place.
“We felt that this kind of thing is necessary if we want to keep rallying in Latvia growing – and we need it to grow.”
“Me, my team and the Latvian Automobile Federation had been sitting around the table and discussing what can we do better and how we can make the sport better. This year, as MRF became control tire for Latvian Rally Championship, this was one of the points in the [control tire] contract: that MRF wanted to invest in the future to launch a junior program and championship.”
Sesks stunned WRC service park with his home event performance in 2024
That growth strategy has now arrived – and Sesks is central to it. This year marks the debut of the Mārtiņš Sesks MRF Tyres Junior Challenge; half junior championship, half rally academy, with Mārtiņš himself delivering plenty of the tuition, MRF delivering the resource and tires to make it happen and the Latvian motorsport federation sanctioning it as an official junior championship of its national rally series.
Aspiring professional rally drivers aged 14-25 can participate in a program that’s split into two categories: Under 25 for Rally4 drivers and national-spec machines with up to 3.0L engines (aimed squarely at BMW drivers, of which there are many in the Baltics) and the Under 18s class, with drivers in first-generation R2s, Rally5s and 1.7L national machines (think Renault Clios, Honda Civics). All the youngsters get structured training days in between the five rallies that count towards the Junior Challenge.
The day before the season-opening Rally Kurzeme at the end of May, all the Junior Challenge participants were in host city Liepāja for a physical fitness workshop; before Rallysprint Talsi in June it’s a media skills and sponsor relations seminar, then a tutored track day at MUSA Raceland before then next events in Cesvaine and Cēsis – plus an engineering workshop in capital city Rīga before the title-deciding Rallysprint Latvija round.
It’s a first step towards replicating what Estonia has successfully executed thanks to the Ott Tänak effect. Estonia appears on the verge of a golden generation – between Toyota prodigy Jaspar Vaher, M-Sport junior and FIA Rally Star graduate Romet Jürgenson and Joosep Nõgene making waves in Finland and the ERC, its concerted efforts to make itself a force in rallying equivalent to Finland appears to be working.
Now Latvia, and Sesks, wants a slice of the talent pie.
Sesks took MRF-backed Škoda to second place on ERC's Royal Rally of Scandinavia last month
“For the past few years, the Latvian Junior Championship wasn’t at its highest level; we didn’t have a proper championship,” Sesks explained. “I’m 26 years old yet I’m still the youngest driver who drives somewhere outside Baltics – and I think it shouldn’t be like that. If you look now in Lithuania or Estonia, they have good junior programs with some good financial support; we needed to do something like it [for Latvia].
“The [Latvian] rally commission came with an idea that, Mārtiņš, as you are here, we would need you and we would like to name it after you. And it wouldn’t be only the name, but you have to be involved in this. Of course I said yes without even thinking about it.”
The benefits are obvious: the winners of each round – both U25 and U18 – get a fresh pair of MRF tires to use later, while Mārtiņš will bestow a €100 Virši fuel voucher to whichever crew impressed him the most at each event. But the big prize for the championship is one that will offer a chance to level up.
“On each round there will be as well some different workshops, which will include marketing with social media, some technical workshops, physical workshops, driver and co-driver workshops, things like that,” said Sesks. “And then at the end you have financial prizes and as well there will be one test day for the winners with me in a Rally3 car. So I would say for the first proper junior challenge in many years in Latvia, it’s not a bad deal for them!”
Is this the beginning of Sesks, MRF and Latvia’s automobile federation shaping the Baltic nation into a powerhouse to rival its world championship-winning neighbor Estonia? It’s too early to say. And Sesks is urging patience: this is year one of a multi-year masterplan that will expand over time.
Oliver Solberg is among the top-level drivers to have honed their talents on Latvia's stages
And that plan goes beyond just Latvian drivers too. The nation has a strong past track record for being the very first stop on the development pathway for the world’s greatest talents globally: Kalle Rovanperä and Oliver Solberg both drove in Latvia’s junior ranks for multiple years at the start of their journey towards WRC stardom. Sesks also wants to make Latvia the go-to destination for non-Latvians to learn their craft.
“As we are now launching this only this year, I wouldn’t say that if they are winning this Junior Challenge, they should necessarily go to do ERC next year or something else,” said Sesks. “It’s just the first step for them.
“Of course, I would be happy if they are staying one or two or a bit more years in the program because we are planning to make it bigger, with more workshops and more like an academy thing. So, for example, if you’re not Latvian, but from wherever you are coming, is that you approach us, our academy, and then we will try to give you steps which you need to do, what kind of rallies you would need to do, and so on. And then hopefully after a few years, is someone who would go to ERC Junior, Junior WRC, whatever.”
In the more immediate term, Sesks’ impact on rallying will be measured by how close to the front he can fight in his mixture of ERC drives with Team MRF and in the WRC with M-Sport – resuming with this week’s Acropolis Rally Greece.
In the longer term, his legacy looks set to outstretch that. Whatever happens, Sesks has already walked among the rallying elite – now the plan is to make sure the generation after him can run straight into it.
