The 25-year-old Estonian driver is among M-Sport Ford’s young prospects, and he is expected to be the team’s next promising talent to move up to the top class.
This season, Jürgenson has competed in the WRC2 category with M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta Rally2 car and has managed to impress the team’s management.
M-Sport is far behind the two factory teams, Toyota and Hyundai, in terms of resources, which means it must adopt a different approach when it comes to its drivers.
M-Sport focuses on young drivers who can fund their own programmes and also bring financial backing to the team. This season, that role has been filled by Grégoire Munster, who is contesting his second full year with M-Sport, and Irishman Josh McErlean, who joined the outfit for this season.
“As every year, of course we want to continue. We’ll see how things work out and which sponsors will continue their cooperation with us, and what our options are,” said M-Sport team principal Richard Millener to Estonia’s Delfi Sport.
According to Millener, M-Sport has only one path to success.
“At the moment we’re not fighting for rally wins, but we’re developing young drivers. That’s what we need to keep doing if we want to be fighting for rally wins again,” Millener continued.
Millener believes it’s likely that the team will continue with two top-class drivers next season as well.
“It’s still too early to say anything. There’s been a lot of talk, but nothing concrete has happened yet,” Millener said regarding contract negotiations.
However, Millener made it clear that Romet Jürgenson has surprised the team in a positive way.
“He’s had quite an incredible year,” Millener said.
“We saw how he went practically without any experience in a Rally2 car and finished second in the British European Championship round in Wales,” Millener recalled.
In addition to the European Championship rounds, Jürgenson has already competed in six WRC events in the WRC2 category this season. His best results so far have been fifth places in both Rally Sardinia and his home event in Estonia.
He also performed excellently in the European Championship round in Croatia, where he finished fourth – though the result could have been even better.
“Without the qualifying crash, he could have been higher up,” Millener pointed out.
“On the first day he started from 25th position but was still able to set top times. In the end, a puncture cost him a podium, but he still drove really well,” Millener added.
Overall, Jürgenson’s season has been clearly on the positive side, and his performances have also impressed Malcolm Wilson, M-Sport’s owner.
“Malcolm knew he approached everything very wisely, but he’s still exceeded all our expectations,” Millener said.
“It’s very interesting to see how Romet’s development continues. We have to be very careful, though, not to make too big a move with him too quickly,” Millener said.
M-Sport has experience with rushing things unnecessarily. Both Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux were promoted to the top class too early in their careers, and both had to return to the second tier to rebuild their confidence. That’s a mistake M-Sport doesn’t want to repeat with Jürgenson.
