I don't know if anyone outside of Estonia remembers but there was a press release in the end of 2025 that Rally Estonia together with the promoter will give one young Estonian a chance to compete with Rally1 car in Rally Estonia 2026. Huge news but this was cancelled. There were basically three candidates - Robert Virves, Romet Jürgenson and Georg Linnamäe. The car would have been a Ford.
Robert Virves - The only option would have been to drive a Ford. Since Robert Virves is a Škoda driver, he didn't get the opportunity to step into a Ford. Considering what is going to happen in 2027 and beyond, Škoda obviously didn't want to let that happen.
Romet Jürgenson - Basically team bosses Wilson and Millener decided it was simply too early for Romet to jump into a Rally1 car based on how his WRC2 season started.
Georg Linnamäe - He is currently taking a break from rallying to focus on graduating from university. He joked that arriving at a high speed event "cold" without recent competitive seat time would make it reckless to drive even a Rally2 car, let alone Rally1 machine.
The project would have been €100 000 and is now "invested" differently. Instead of taking it back the promoter and Rally Estonia have agreed to redirect the entirety of it into developing young Estonian rally talent. The money has been split into two packages: €50,000 WRC2 Prize Pool: This will serve as a performance bonus for the three fastest young Estonian drivers in the WRC2 category at Rally Estonia where the 1st place gets €25,000, 2nd €15,000 and 2rd place: €10,000. Rest of the €50,000 is a direct targeted grant given to the Estonian Next Rallystar fund to back Patrick Enok’s ongoing development campaign, helping boost his crowdfunding budget.