Munster not concerned by McErlean defeat

M-Sport driver is focused on competitiveness of Ford Puma rather than beating his team-mates

Photography by M-Sport

Words by Mark Paulson

Grégoire Munster came into this year’s World Rally Championship as the clear leader among M-Sport’s driver roster.

His team-mates Josh McErlean and part-timer Mārtiņš Sesks had contested just three WRC rounds in Rally1 machinery between them. Munster rightly pointed out that he lacked experience too, with just one full season at the highest level under his belt. But nevertheless, it was Munster who was expected to lead the way.

Over the opening – mostly very specialist – few rounds of 2025, that was generally borne out in practice. But on Rally Portugal, Munster was soundly beaten by McErlean, to the tune of three quarters of a minute.

The Luxembourger insists he is not concerned about losing out to his Irish team-mate, instead welcoming having a driver alongside him who is keen to pursue the same development paths.

“No, for me not,” Munster replied when asked by DirtFish if being beaten by McErlean was a problem.

“I mean, I’ve beaten him in most of the rallies before. He beat me this time and there are nine events left on the calendar. Elfyn Evans is leading the championship and this time he was beaten by five other guys. So, I mean, it happens: it’s competition, for sure.

“This time was a low, but I’m pleased he’s doing well and that we have the same feelings so we can both push in the same direction.”

Rally Portugal is an event that Munster had contested only twice before, neither time completing the full stage mileage. Conversely, this year’s edition was McErlean’s fifth consecutive tilt at the rally. Having finished second in WRC2 last year, the Irishman was tipped by many to go well on his first Rally1 start on the Iberian peninsula.

The two drivers adopted contrasting tactics to bridging the gap in pace to Toyota and Hyundai. While McErlean focused on his own driving rather than making changes to the car, Munster experimented with a stiffer setup. Ultimately it cost Munster grip – and time on the leaderboard – but he stands by his approach.

“We were first Ford. OK, it’s good, but we cannot be pleased with that – we want to fight with the others,” he explained. “Sami Pajari was only something like 26 seconds in front of us [at Friday’s second service], so there was something to play for.

“And that’s why we took that change with adjusting the setup. But it wasn’t working. And although you’re first Ford on the stage or in the overall classification, at the end of the stage, we were still like one second per kilometer slower than the two other car brands. That’s not enough, so we need to find some solution. We have a pre-event test plan for Sardinia, so we hope we can find this there.”

Munster is focused on improving the Puma and racing the other teams, rather than his team-mates

For Munster, it was a case of rolling the dice and hoping to find a breakthrough with the Puma Rally1 rather than worrying about any perceived intra-team rivalry.

He added: “We were almost level with Josh, a bit in front, and Pajari was not so far ahead, so the goal was to try and improve the car. But it was a bit unknown, so we took that gamble and it didn’t pay off.

“But if you don’t take the risk at some point, nothing happens as well. So yeah, it was a mistake, now we know. But then we need to find some other solution because, like I say, we are stuck a bit on a very soft car and it’s working in some areas, but it’s not in other areas.

“If we want to catch them, we need to find the solution so we can play with the other cars.”

Munster is a firm believer that experience of rallies is more important than the car

To outsiders, Munster getting beaten by the newcomer to the team is not a good look. But, 25-year-old McErlean is only seven months Munster’s junior and the disparity in their experience levels is not as great as last year when, for Munster, the shoe was on the other foot.

“Every time people say you’re the team leader and so on. But it’s not like I’m in the same position as Adrien [Fourmaux] last year, being on the rallies for a fifth or sixth time in Portugal or Sardinia,” Munster said.

“I did Portugal twice in my life. We crashed out twice. So, yeah, not ideal. At least now we reached the finish without doing any mistake but, again, that’s not enough; we want to perform.

“And for sure, Josh was behind in most of the events before and on an event he knows really well he’s been on the pace, and that’s also good to see. That’s what I like because then it pushes us as well to do the job behind.

“It’s good we also have a bit the same feedback regarding the car setup so we can push in the same direction for the coming events.”