Parked outside Monaco’s Casino Square, it was time for the hero shot to be taken.
New world champion Thierry Neuville stood proudly before his Hyundai. Returning world champion Kalle Rovanperä lined up alongside his Toyota, and then there was Grégoire Munster representing M-Sport Ford.
A driver with no championships, rally wins, podiums or even stage wins to speak of yet.
But that’s the de facto position the 26-year-old is now in. With Rally1 rookie Josh McErlean for a team-mate, Munster is the team leader at M-Sport – even though 2025 will be just his second full-time campaign at the top of the World Rally Championship.
Daunting pressure? Perhaps, but Munster’s not showing any signs of it. In his mind, he has the perfect example to benchmark himself against.
His target for the year is to get on the podium, and replicate what his old team-mate did last year.
“I think we’re a bit in the similar case as Adrian [Fourmaux] last year,” Munster told DirtFish.
Munster is the de facto team leader for M-Sport this year, but is inspired by that pressure
“So he got a full season where he had time to learn and so on and then previous year [2024] he got his second year in the Rally1 car and he was a bit like the newcomer, the new rising star.
“So he achieved some really good things with M-Sport and we are looking forward to do the same.”
Munster’s comparison is intriguing, but not fully accurate. Yes, last year was Fourmaux’s second ‘full’ season (after he missed three rounds in 2022), but the Frenchman also did most of the 2021 campaign, meaning he effectively had a season’s more experience last year than Munster currently has.
But it’s worth remembering how little was expected of M-Sport 12 months ago, and how Fourmaux switched that narrative on its head. That part absolutely rings true today.
Ironically, Fourmaux himself is also looking to replicate his 2024 strategy at his new home, Hyundai.
“I want to take it step by step, a bit as I did with the Puma, and it was working really well,” Fourmaux told DirtFish. “So let’s see.
“I’ll do my best definitely to get my first win, also first, and then we’ll see for the championship if we can do more, but for sure I want to fight for the podium of the championship like last year.
“It’s quite annoying that every time you try and you get close [to a first win] and then you miss it, but you know you can take time and I think it’s also part of the learning of this sport, it takes many years and I’ve learned that from myself,” he added.
“So I think I just need to stay humble and do my best every rally, and then if it comes then I will be really happy.”
What can we expect from McErlean?
As for McErlean, his expectations are measured ahead of what’s going to be a challenging season for him.
Monte Carlo will be the biggest of them all, given the 25-year-old starts it without ever rallying a Rally1 car before, competing with a new co-driver in a new team and on new tires at an event he has only done once before.
“It’s going to be a big week, a lot of learning, a lot of pacenotes to write,” McErlean told DirtFish.
“Obviously, we haven’t been here in a couple of years and it’s a lot of new stages. So yeah, new co-driver, new tires, new team, new people, new car, so a lot of things to get used to, but yeah, we’re really excited to get going.”
McErlean (far right) is looking to establish his level and then progress from there
The one advantage he does have, however, is the scores are reset for everyone in one of those regards: the tires. That makes McErlean’s adaptation a tiny bit more straightforward than it could’ve been.
“Exactly that,” he agreed. “Everyone’s probably comparing them to a Pirelli or the likes of that, but honestly, we don’t have much to compare in these cars to tires etc. OK, we can compare it to a Rally2 tire but I think the car is a lot different to [try and] start trying to compare tires.
“So yeah we go in with an open mind; the tire is what it is. It felt good from the test and let’s just trust our information and hopefully make the right tire choice come Thursday evening.”
As for his season expectations?
“It’s definitely a tricky one. We don’t know our level against the top guys. We know their level is the top so yeah, it’s going to be a lot of learning as I said.
“But progress is what we want to make, we want to set a benchmark at the start and build it step by step from there. I think going into the mid-season, the likes of Portugal, Sardinia, Greece, Finland, etc, we’ve had experience there and hopefully we can step it up by that point and build on it from there.”
