Josh McErlean has been handed a five-minute time penalty by the Rally Italia Sardegna stewards after M-Sport Ford fitted an unsealed replacement engine following an engine failure on Saturday.
The car retired on the road section between the end of SS13 and TC13A after suffering an engine problem. During the evening service, ahead of the crew’s planned restart, the team replaced the damaged engine with a new unit.
However, the replacement engine had not been sealed, resulting in a breach of Articles 17.1.1 and 17.1.4, in conjunction with Article 17.2.2 of the 2026 FIA WRC Sporting Regulations.
The team’s manager, Samantha Gray, appeared before the stewards on Sunday morning and confirmed the circumstances surrounding the engine change.
Under the regulations, each manufacturer is limited to two engines per car name during the season. Article 17.2.2 states that once the permitted engine allocation has been exceeded, a five-minute penalty must be applied at the following rally.
In this case, however, there will be no following event for Car No. 55 during the 2026 season, with Rally Italia Sardegna marking the final round of the championship.
The stewards therefore decided to apply the prescribed five-minute penalty at the current event rather than carrying it over to a subsequent rally.
The penalty will be applied at TC13D, meaning Car No. 55 will carry an additional five minutes to its overall classification when the penalty is added.
Watch below the stewards' decision:
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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