WRC driver Jon Armstrong has joined the development team behind Assetto Corsa Rally. According to Traxion, Armstrong has been providing physics and handling feedback to developers Kunos Simulazioni and Supernova Games Studios since March.
It is a significant hire for a game still in early access. Armstrong is not just a driver lending his name. He is a former game designer at Codemasters, a WRC Esports champion, and someone who still uses Richard Burns Rally to prepare for real-world events. Few people alive understand both sides of the sim-to-stage relationship as well as he does.
How Armstrong went from sim racing to the WRC
Armstrong grew up around rallying in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. His father was a mechanic who worked on rally cars at weekends, and Jon started competing at 13. But when funding ran dry, he turned to sim racing.
In 2018, he won the WRC Esports Championship. That led to a job at Codemasters as a game designer, where he worked on DiRT Rally 2.0 and EA Sports WRC. It was not a ceremonial role. As EA described it, Armstrong provided direct input on how cars handle, how surfaces feel, and how the driving experience translates from screen to stage.
The Codemasters connection eventually helped fund his return to real-world competition. Backed by the studio, he re-entered the Junior WRC and finished runner-up twice, in 2021 and 2022. He won the ERC3 title in 2023, and by 2026 he was driving a Rally1 Ford Puma for M-Sport in the World Rally Championship.
Armstrong's 2026 WRC season so far
His debut Rally1 campaign has been rough in the results column but impressive on raw pace. At Rally Croatia earlier this month, Armstrong set nine top-three stage times and came within 0.1 seconds of a maiden WRC stage win, according to DirtFish. A crash on the opening stage and a tyre delamination cost him any chance of a strong overall finish, but M-Sport team principal Richard Millener called his performance outstanding.
Armstrong still uses sims between events. He has spoken repeatedly about hopping on Richard Burns Rally with a Thrustmaster wheel, running stages with pacenotes, and treating it as genuine preparation rather than downtime.
Why this matters for Assetto Corsa Rally
Rally sims have a long history of driver involvement. Codemasters built much of DiRT Rally's credibility on real-world feedback. But Armstrong brings something most consultants do not: years of professional game development experience alongside his driving career. He understands tyre models and suspension geometry not just from the seat of a rally car, but from the tools used to build them in software.
Assetto Corsa Rally launched in early access in late 2025 and has been growing steadily. Its v0.4 update, due tomorrow (30 April), adds the Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit Car and the Subaru Impreza S3 Group A, along with snowy weather conditions for Rally Wales and Rally Alsace.
The Colin McRae connection
There is a personal thread here too. Armstrong is in a relationship with Hollie McRae, daughter of the late Colin McRae. He co-drove for her during her debut rally last year.
The Group A Impreza arriving in tomorrow's update is the car most associated with her father. Colin McRae took the Impreza's first WRC win at Rally New Zealand in 1994 and used it to claim the 1995 drivers' title. That is a coincidence of timing, not a planned tie-in, but it adds a layer to the story that is hard to ignore.
