Sesks was a guest on the Sporta Režīms programme produced by the betting company 11LV. Among other things, Sesks discussed the entry list for next week’s Rally Monte Carlo event and explained the reasons why he will not be competing in the French Alps himself.
The Latvian contested an seven-round WRC programme last year with the M-Sport Ford team. The start of the season was sluggish, but at the season-ending rally in Saudi Arabia Sesks once again showed his speed. He was even in contention for victory, but two punctures on the penultimate stage and a technical issue brought his rally to an end.
“In an ideal world and according to our plan, we wanted to start in Monte Carlo. Of course, anyone would like to start in every rally and contest a full WRC season, but it turned out that the middle of the season was not particularly strong for us, while the Saudi Arabia round, where we performed well, came quite late. As a result, discussions only began after that event, and that is a difficult moment to still manage to change anything in the programme,” Sesks says.
“Unfortunately, we are not yet on the Monte Carlo start list, but after that there are still 13 other rounds. We are ready and working very actively, planning for the future, so I would advise waiting impatiently for the next entry lists.”
Sesks is expected to continue at the wheel of a Ford, but he admits to having held talks with Hyundai as well. However, the Korean manufacturer opted to rely on experience, as it signed three different drivers for its third car. This season, Hyundai’s third car will be driven by Hayden Paddon, Esapekka Lappi and Dani Sordo.
“I won’t deny that we had fairly serious talks with Hyundai, but as you can see, Hayden Paddon is currently on the list. I am not particularly upset about not starting in Monte Carlo, because it would have been our first Monte Carlo Rally with this car, and it would have been quite a challenging adventure,” Sesks sums up.
“They chose experience this year. There is a logical explanation for that – this is the final year with these Rally1 regulations. All the previous drivers have already competed with these cars, they have experience, the team knows how to work with them and what to expect. Considering the 2025 results, when Toyota was far superior to Hyundai, winning 12 out of 14 rounds, Hyundai has a very strong appetite to strike back this year.”
Sesks also revealed in the interview that he will compete in Rally Alūksne at the same time as the Monte Carlo round. Latvia’s winter rally is also a strong indication that Sesks will take part in the Swedish WRC event in February. For the test event, the Latvian will start in an SRT team Škoda Fabia.
Source: Go4Speed.lv
