Grégoire Munster entered the 2025 World Rally Championship season keen to replicate his departed team-mate Adrien Fourmaux and claim podium finishes, but his M-Sport boss Richard Millener has said there is “no expectation” for that.
Munster currently has just four points to his name after the first two events of the season, but the sophomore driver had an impressive Monte Carlo where he was fighting for the top four and won a stage before crashing out on black ice on the final day.
In Sweden, the 26-year-old suffered a poor first stage on Friday and that harmed the rest of his event as he was left at the front of the field in the worst of the conditions.
Millener admitted “everyone was a bit surprised to be honest, me included” by Munster’s step up at the Monte.
“I think those conditions he obviously revels in, and we’ve seen it on every time we go to a slippery, difficult Tarmac event, he’s there and right at the front,” he told DirtFish.
Munster was impressive in Monte; less so in Sweden
“But his consistency and his ability to control his drive over the weekend was really impressive. And I think yeah ,OK, he had the accident but I spoke to Elfyn [Evans] in the airport and he was like ‘If it wasn’t him it would be the next one [driver]’. That corner was particularly tricky.
“It was a shame for us that we had the mechanical issue which meant he was forced to be first on the road and that was an element of advantage and disadvantage of being first on the road – you can pull a bit of mud out but you’re also the first to find the tricky conditions.
“So realistically, we weren’t expecting a podium or anything at the end of the event. Whether we could have got it even without the problem, I don’t think so. But it was great to see consistent speed and the ability to mix with the top guys on more than just one or two stages, which was the goal we set out for this year.”
Millener reiterated that actually achieving a podium finish this year is not a target the team have set Munster.
“I think he has the potential [to get them],” Millener stressed, “but I think that’s still a big ask when you compare how many others are around him and how much experience they have.
“I’m not saying it’s impossible. I think we need a bit of luck and a few things to go our way. But I would say by the end of the year, I’d hope he’d be getting closer.
“And we’ve got to be fair to him: we’ve got to remember how many years it takes to get these next steps onwards. So no expectation for that. And I’ve always said from the start, we shouldn’t compare to last year and expect to get podiums at the moment.”
The WRC next heads to Africa for Safari Rally Kenya on March 20-23.
“It’s one of the events where it’s a combination of speed, but also management and reliability from the car, and I think that’s one of our strong points with M-Sport. So I’m looking forward to that event,” Munster told DirtFish.
“It’s also just one event I really enjoy. The different kind of stages, the wildlife, the difficulty with the humidity in the air and so on. It’s a proper challenge and I’m looking forward to it.”
