The Schio-based team is strengthening its presence in the continent’s leading young drivers’ series by announcing two international programmes with Aatu Hakalehto and Markas Buteikis. Both will compete in Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF cars on Hankook tyres, in a season set to place MS Munaretto firmly at the heart of the 2026 Junior ERC.
MS Munaretto has finalised a double programme firmly focused on the 2026 Junior ERC, further expanding its international presence by placing its trust in two highly promising young talents, Aatu Hakalehto and Markas Buteikis. The Schio-based outfit will in fact be a key player in the continental series dedicated to emerging drivers, fielding two Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF cars equipped with Hankook tyres, within a project that clearly confirms the team’s determination to establish itself with ambition on the European junior stage.
What MS Munaretto has put together is a move that makes the team’s sporting direction for the 2026 season unmistakably clear. The Junior ERC becomes the focal point of an operation that brings together long-term vision, the quality of the selected profiles and an international outlook, placing two young crews within a technical structure already well used to competing at a high level.
Aatu Hakalehto will tackle a full programme by contesting the ERC4 campaign in its entirety, starting from Rally Sierra Morena, the event that will open his continental season. Alongside him will be Niklas Heino, in a pairing facing a long, demanding and highly formative year in a category that represents one of the most delicate proving grounds for any driver aiming to measure himself properly against European rallying. For the young Finn, the campaign will also include an Italian programme in the IRCup, although this will cross over with the continental calendar and force him to miss Rallye Elba, which clashes directly with Sierra Morena.
Aatu confirmed his status as one of Finland’s most promising young rally drivers by winning the Flying Finn Future Star programme in 2025. The award, aimed at developing future talents, also secured him a start at Secto Rally Finland the same year.
Hakalehto has carried that momentum into 2026 in style, taking a dominant victory at Rally del Bardolino, the opening event of his season. At the end of 2025, he also impressed internationally with a second-place finish at Rally del Lazio. In addition, he has claimed multiple wins in the Finnish Rally Championship in the Rally4 category.
Hakalehto’s career continues to progress strongly, and he extends his thanks to his supporters and partners for making his advancement possible.
Within the same framework sits the programme of Markas Buteikis, one of the most interesting young names now stepping onto the wider European stage. The Lithuanian driver will begin his season at Royal Rally of Scandinavia alongside co-driver Titas Čapkauskas, bringing with him a sporting story that has already attracted major attention in his home country. Buteikis and Čapkauskas secured their place in the Junior ERC by winning the 2025 Lithuanian Rally Championship Rally4 Trophy after an exceptionally close contest, decided only on the final stage of the final round. That success earned the crew a scholarship specifically designed to support their move onto the European junior scene.
In Lithuania, their breakthrough carried real significance, because it gave concrete shape to a project created to guide the best young drivers from the national championship into a broader rally career. In a country where rallying remains the most popular and competitive form of motorsport, but which has not yet produced a consistent international benchmark, the success of Buteikis and Čapkauskas was widely seen as an important step forward in terms of future prospects as well. The Rally4 Trophy brought together the best under-26 drivers in equal machinery, raising the level of competition to the pace of higher categories, and the young Lithuanian crew managed to emerge when it mattered most, earning the chance to compete in the JERC.
For Buteikis, still only 20 years old, the new programme represents the most significant test of his career so far. After rapid and constant progress, built from the “Aš Ralistas” project, through success in the national feeder categories and then the step up to Rally4 machinery, the Baltic driver will now face new roads, different reference points and a much broader technical context than anything encountered up to now. A significant part of the European calendar will also be run on asphalt, a surface less familiar than the gravel tradition of Lithuanian rallying, an aspect that will make it even more interesting to assess his adaptability, learning speed and overall weight in comparison with the best young drivers on the continent.
With this double operation, MS Munaretto is therefore strengthening its presence in the continental championship in a very clear way, choosing to back two different yet perfectly coherent paths within a precise sporting vision. The overall picture is that of a team viewing the Junior ERC not as a simple showcase, but as a concrete arena in which to work, grow and consolidate its international standing.
