Towards a very open JWRC in 2025

When you look at the list of candidates for the first of the 5 events scheduled for 2025, one thing is clear. The astonishing excitement seen at the same time last year has disappeared. There were in fact 19 competitors at the start in Sweden 12 months ago, which had caused concern among M-Sport Poland, which manufactures the cars, but all the contenders had been able to have a car. The numbers had not been as dense throughout the season, but the Junior had nevertheless given encouraging signs of the return of young people to the discipline. They have clearly diminished with this time only 11 crews since only one female (either Claire Schönborn or Lyssia Baudet) will continue the competition. Despite this shortage, the level appears high.

There are indeed several who could claim the title and it is very difficult to designate a favourite. The two survivors of the FIA ​​Rally Star programme are obviously dreaming of following in the footsteps of their former classmate Romet Jürgenson who was champion in 2024 and who is starting his year in WRC2 in Sweden. Australian Taylor Gill and South African Max Smart are ambitious, but they will have to be wary of Mille Johansson. The Swede won the JWRC in Sweden last year before going on to win the Junior title in ERC. If he were to win this year, he would have completed the ideal route to WRC2. Crowned in WRC3 during the previous year, Dominguez begins his 3^e year in this category. The Paraguayan has built a very busy program and he hopes to close this chapter in 2025 to focus mainly on Rally2 next year.

With 2 years of experience, will Eamonn Kelly finally manage to convince? Supported by the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy, perhaps he will be inspired by the adventure that happened to Josh McErlean at M-Sport? Turkey could well be the most represented nationality in JWRC. It remains to be seen whether its drivers will be… strong. With his French navigator Corentin Silvestre, Kerem Kazaz (19 years old) drove a lot last year (24 rallies!) and he arrives in Sweden having already competed in 2 races on snow in 2025 with Hankook tires (Arctic and Rally Boden). Will that be enough to be in the lead? His compatriot Ali Türkhan is older (25 years old) and also more experienced. 3^e in 2024, it should also be flagged as a pilot to keep an eye on. On the Estonian side (Ott Tänak, Robert Virves, Jürgenson…), the representative this year is Joosep Ralf Nogene (21 years old) who wore out his suit in the ERC. He will have the difficult task of trying to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. For his part, Thomas Martens can dream of taking up the torch soon Thierry Neuville. The 18-year-old Belgian has almost never ridden in Belgium (4 races) since his debut in 2018. More accustomed to the roads of Latvia and Finland, he could create a surprise. Finally, the Frenchman Tristan Charpentier (24 years old), who will find the experienced Florian Barral at his side, will call on his knowledge of the circuit, but also of rally for 2 seasons to become one of the best.

All these competitors have a meeting this week in Umeå in the north of Sweden for the first round of the JWRC 2025 with 18 SS on the program (if the reindeer herders do not cancel some before the start...) and 300 km of timed trials.