Jon Armstrong joins the Stage Mode podcast to discuss his outside ERC title shot and much more
Photography by M-Sport
With its inexperienced driver lineup, M-Sport always knew its chances of World Rally Championship silverware in 2025 were slim.
But with works efforts in Rally2 as well, could that be where M-Sport brings home the bacon? Could Jon Armstrong deliver M-Sport a championship title this season?
Competing in the European Rally Championship in a Ford Fiesta Rally2, the Irish driver hasn’t had the smoothest of seasons but his pace has been undeniable – as proved by a second place recently at Barum Rally Zlín.
Two rounds remain in Wales and Croatia, and Armstrong is effectively 30 points shy of the championship lead when current dropped scores are considered. So with up to 35 points available per ERC event, it’s an outside shot.
But Armstrong still has his eyes on the championship, and his rivals Andrea Mabellini and Miko Marczyk, while his hopes remain alive.
Armstrong has been fast, but issues have hurt his championship challenge
“You still need to obviously look to the championship and try to get a strong result,” Armstrong told DirtFish’s Stage Mode podcast.
“No doubt I’ll be comparing myself to Marczyk and Mabelini [next week at Rali Ceredigion] to see what type of event they’re having and how my pace is compared to them and take it from there.
“I’m kind of needing them to have a poor event, which I think having both of them have that is not always going to happen, and you don’t wish that on them anyway. So we just need to focus on ourselves and see if we can have a really good event, enjoy driving and try to pick up as many points as we can.”
Unlike his Škoda-driving rivals, Armstrong is still chasing his maiden ERC win but theoretically has a great shot at it next week, with a slimmer entry and good form from Barum to carry into Ceredigion.
“I think I’ve been around for long enough to know that, yeah, on paper, if everything looks good and your form is currently good, you could be fast enough to win a rally, but you still have to be focused on putting in the effort and doing the work,” Armstrong said.
“I’m just focused on trying to do a good job of prepping for the rally and trying to enjoy all the aspects. And the more you can enjoy driving each stage, the less that you’re trying to force a result or get through the rally and thinking about the last stage.
“You can’t guarantee that you’re going to win, but you know, maybe you’ll pick a certain stage and try to focus on that as being one that could be a good one to have a go on and stuff like that.
“So yeah, we’ll just see next week how it all pans out and try to have fun.”
Listen below to the full conversation with Armstrong as he joins Luke Barry on Stage Mode to discuss his WRC near-misses, that experience at Goodwood driving L555 BAT, and why everything in his life is simply geared towards rallying.
Tags: ERC, ERC 2025, Jon Armstrong, Stage Mode
Publish Date August 27, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/64vL4Uq3-ERC_CZE_25_ATMOSPHERE_1100-780x520.jpg August 27, 2025
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