Grégoire Munster will take on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally for M-Sport in a Ford Puma Rally1, just days after contesting the Dakar Rally.
M-Sport announced its full-time 2026 lineup on Tuesday, with Jon Armstrong replacing Munster as team-mate to Josh McErlean.
But appearing on DirtFish’s podcast SPIN, The Rally Pod, M-Sport team principal Rich Millener said the squad was still exploring options with Munster and Mãrtiņš Sesks who completed a part-time campaign in 2025.
Now M-Sport has announced Munster and co-driver Louis Louka will tackle the Monte, immediately after Munster’s appearance at the Dakar Rally as co-driver to Jourdan Serderidis in a Ford Raptor T1+.
“I’m really happy and looking forward to starting the season in Monte Carlo,” Munster said. “It’s where I took my first WRC stage win, and it’s always an event with tricky conditions, sometimes even full winter conditions with snow and ice.
“The stages are quite different from previous years, with a mix of new roads and some returning favourites, so that’s an exciting new challenge.
“We’ve seen throughout 2025 that the Puma Rally1 has performed well there on the Hankook soft tires, and I know we have all the ingredients to do well. It will be a challenge, especially with going straight from Dakar directly into Monte Carlo recce the following day, so January will be very busy – but I’ll have time to sleep in February!”
