“The way I look at it is last year, in WRC2, we were not near the same level as Sami [Pajari].
“He went on to win WRC2, a championship which we know how competitive it is and how difficult it is to even set fastest times in that category, never mind win it.
“And this year to be matching him, and sometimes beating him in stages, has been a big thing for me personally, because going into the year I never even looked at Sami as a benchmark.”
These are the thoughts of Josh McErlean, three rounds into his maiden World Rally Championship season as a Rally1 driver for M-Sport Ford.
“I thought maybe Grég [Munster], or even trying to get close to Grég, would have been the challenge,” he added.
“But coming out the other side of the first three rounds, I would say in terms of pace it’s been better than I expected.”
McErlean has been encouraged by his speed - particularly in Sweden
That’s an observation most will go along with – particularly in Sweden where McErlean was, at times, quickest of the M-Sport Pumas; including the highly-rated Mārtiņš Sesks.
Monte Carlo wasn’t so special – speed-wise perhaps more in-line with what the watching world had expected from the 25-year-old. But thereafter, McErlean has been improving and genuinely impressive at times considering his lack of experience.
“Overall results sometimes [haven’t been as strong],” McErlean continued to DirtFish.
“OK Monte Carlo was nice, Sweden, we made a mistake. Kenya, it’s a bit between avoiding the rock and being unlucky, but I’d still classify that as a mistake with the stone and breaking the steering arm.
“But in terms of speed, yeah, that has been nice.”
And having felt like a match for Pajari – whose driving for TGR WRT 2 this year off the back of his WRC2 title and three Rally1 outings in 2024 – McErlean wants to continue using the Finn as a benchmark.
“I think we have to use it now that we’ve got close in these rallies,” he said.
Pajari has still been faster than McErlean, but by less than he was last year in Rally2
“OK, Sami’s still learning as well and that’s a big thing to remember. He’s a step ahead of me in terms of how many rallies he’s done in a Rally1 and the experience he has in all these events, [and] you have to understand he’s maybe under strict instructions to get through the rallies as well.
“But still it’s the same boat: we’re young drivers trying to find our way and find our feet. And it’s nice to be there or thereabouts [with him] because in December last year, I didn’t think we’d be close to Sami.”
Of the 56 stages held so far in 2025, Pajari has been quicker than McErlean on 42 of them (75%). But of the 89 they both did in WRC2 last year, Pajari was ahead on 76 (91.5%) – an improvement of 16.5% from McErlean’s side.
No push until Portugal
McErlean has also been under instruction to make sure he just banks the experience on the opening three rounds of the championship.
So heading into round four, Rally Islas Canarias, what’s the plan?
“I think it’s quite similar,” McErlean confirmed. “It’s still going to be difficult with Tarmac and knowing how difficult Monte Carlo was.
“OK you’ve got more predictability in conditions – the Tarmac’s not going to have the cuts, it’s going to be more consistent, there’s not going to be so much pollution. So it might be a bit easier than Monte, but I still think with these cars on Tarmac, carrying speed and trusting the aerodynamics is a massive thing.
McErlean believes Tarmac is the hardest surface to be fast on with a Rally1 car
“The forgiveness is not there that you have in gravel or snow, so you have to be really confident in what the car can do. We were testing this week [on Wednesday], so a lot did come from that there as well.
“But I think it’s the same attitude, same mindset of building it stage by stage, but as soon as we go into Portugal, I think we can come back to what we know in terms of the stages, the experience of what the stages do, where you can push, where you can’t push, where you have to manage tires.
“A lot of that comes with experience and with the amount of times we’ve done Portugal now it’s certainly a place where we can confidently step it up.”
Portugal was the scene of McErlean’s best WRC2 result, where he narrowly finished second to Jan Solans in a thrilling finale last year.
So on events like that, where McErlean only needs to continue learning the car rather than the rally as well, he can be more on the offensive.
The biggest thing I think we've shown is the determination to go through the hardship and get to the endJosh McErlean
The Irishman is however appreciative of a lack of pressure from those above – M-Sport and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy.
“It’s honestly a really relaxed environment,” he said. “There’s not so much pressure to put in a top result at the moment.
“OK, that will come, you have to expect that. But I think from a learning side, it’s nice that everyone’s on the same page whenever it comes to what to expect. Everyone knew how big of a jump-up it would be going into the year.
“And even going to these roll-out tests with M-Sport at the track, it’s nice to get experience in the car, it’s nice to be there driving, it’s nice to be with the team members, learning all the time, so everyone’s relaxed at the moment and I hope that’s the way it continues.”
Pride in his perseverance
If there is one thing McErlean is particularly pleased with from his start to life as a Rally1 driver however, it’s his determination.
He is one of just four drivers (along with Elfyn Evans, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak) to complete every single stage mile of the 2025 season so far.
Given he spent well over 20 minutes digging himself out of a snowbank in Sweden, and a similar period of time changing a steering arm in the wilderness in Kenya, that’s far more of an achievement than it initially sounds.
“The biggest thing I think we’ve shown, and which I hope people see, is the determination to go through the hardship and get to the end,” McErlean said.
“Because in Sweden when we went into the snowbank, we dug ourselves out, we got there [and managed to finish the rally]. Kenya, the same thing with the dust [coming into the car on Friday]. We got through that day and then the next day we changed a steering arm.
“I think sometimes you could give up very easily, but in this sport I think people recognize determination gets you a long way, never mind the results, because when it’s maybe more important, where you have to be determined, show grit, you’ll look back on these past experiences and say, ‘right, we did it then, so why can’t we do it now?’
“The goal for the first three rallies has been to get every kilometer. OK, we’ve done it difficultly sometimes, but we’ve got every kilometer if you look at it from that side.”
McErlean is currently 10th in the world championship with eight points to his name.
