M-Sport Ford has retained Josh McErlean for 2026 FIA WRC season in Rally1, with Jon Armstrong joining in.
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team is pleased to announce an expanded collaboration with the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy in 2026. Academy crew Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy will return to the Ford Puma Rally1 car for the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship, with Rally1 newbies Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne joining the full season line-up. McErlean and Treacy will be joined by their new Academy teammates Armstrong and Shane Byrne on the start ramp at Rallye Monte-Carlo next month. The Irish quartet will combine McErlean and Treacy’s knowledge gained throughout their maiden Rally1 season in 2025 with Armstrong’s strong JWRC and ERC experience to launch into 2026 with clear goals.
McErlean and Treacy will be harnessing the invaluable experience gained from their maiden season in the Rally1 car to advance their own performance for 2026, while also sharing their experience with their new teammates. The pair had an impressive debut season with the M-Sport team, making their first ever appearance in Monaco, just as Armstrong and Byrne will now do. McErlean and Treacy impressed on the season’s opening round, giving a clever and consistent performance that earned them seventh overall on the icy stages of Rallye Monte-Carlo. They carried this momentum through the following rounds, navigating challenges and taking on some events for the first time in their careers. The pair had another positive performance on Rally de Portugal, finishing eighth, and matched their top result with seventh overall on Rally Finland and later again at the Central European Rally.
McErlean’s experience with the Puma Rally1 car has shown clear development throughout the 2025 season, and he and Treacy are now poised to gather even more momentum throughout 2026 to achieve more solid results. With a career built in Ford machinery, Armstrong is a true representative of the effectiveness of the rally progression pyramid. Starting out as a British Rally Championship contender since as early as 2013 in a Ford Fiesta R2, Armstrong competed on national events before making his ERC and WRC debuts in 2015 in the ERC3 and RC4 classes, already starting to build solid experience on staple WRC rounds including Rally de Portugal and Rally Finland.
Armstrong’s achievements also include finishing twice runner-up in the Junior World Rally Championship in 2021 and 2022, in a Ford Fiesta Rally3 with M-Sport Poland, claiming wins and podiums on Junior rounds in Croatia, Sweden and Estonia and Poland to name a few. A move to the FIA European Rally Championship in 2023 saw Armstrong extend his already impressive range of experience. Armstrong claimed five wins in the Fiesta Rally3, which saw him claim the ERC3 title. He also enjoyed the opportunity to make his debut with Rally2 machinery on the Royal Rally of Scandinavia, where he finished just outside the top ten.
In 2024 he advanced to the top-category in ERC behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally2 car alongside then co-driver Eoin Treacy. A productive season in 2024, supported by the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, gave Armstrong a solid knowledge base of the stages. He would harness this experience throughout 2025, now alongside Shane Byrne, to claim their first podium finishes on Rally Poland and Czech Rally Zlín, before their maiden ERC victory on Wales Rali Ceredigion. The pair delivered a dominant performance in Wales, leading the rally from the second stage all the way to the end and collecting four stage wins along the way.
After fighting for the ERC title all the way to the final day of the championship, Armstrong was runner up by only six points after another commanding win on Croatia Rally in October. Buoyed by the confidence from their impressive 2025 performances, Armstrong and Byrne look forward to teaming up with fellow Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew McErlean and Treacy to make the step-up into Ford Puma Rally1 machinery, debuting on Rallye Monte-Carlo in January.
The M-Sport team is thrilled to be working with the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy for another season and looks forward to more strong results together throughout 2026. Further announcements on M-Sport’s remaining line-up will be made soon.
Richard Millener, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Principal, said: “I’m very happy to announce that we will be welcoming Josh and Eoin back to the team for the 2026 season. They had a brilliant debut season and their progression with such limited Rally1 experience was very clear to see, so it’s great to be able to give them the opportunity to continue this upward trajectory. Away from the events, they have both become much-valued members of the team and I’m really looking forward to working with them again.
“It’s also very exciting to see Jon and Shane get the opportunity to make the step-up to Rally1 machinery with us. I’m genuinely eager to see how they progress throughout 2026. Jon’s been working towards this opportunity for a long time now, and his strong ERC performances at the end of last season made it impossible to ignore him. I’d like to thank the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy for their support throughout the 2025 season, and I look forward to developing our partnership further as we head into 2026.”
Josh McErlean said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be confirmed with M-Sport for the 2026 WRC season, and I’m incredibly grateful for the continued support from both the team and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy. We made real progress throughout 2025, and I’m excited to build on everything we learned and put it into action next year. To have another season at this level means a lot. I’m in a completely different place mentally compared to this time last year, stronger, clearer, and ready to enjoy the challenge ahead. My focus now is on myself, performing to the best of my ability, and making the most of this fantastic opportunity with Eoin alongside me.”
Jon Armstrong said: “I’m obviously very grateful for the opportunity to drive a Rally1 car. 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.”
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[The story is as per press release]
