It’s been a challenging first season at the World Rally Championship’s top level for M-Sport’s Josh McErlean.
A surprise signing by Malcolm Wilson’s squad, McErlean impressed with his rate of progression and how he has stacked up against the team’s other drivers. But that progress has stuttered a little on recent events and seventh position on debut in Monte Carlo remains his best result to date.
Picking up two punctures on the opening four stages of last month’s Acropolis Rally, then damaging his Ford Puma Rally1’s suspension early on Saturday, McErlean experienced another character-building event.
He also had trouble with his handbrake – like team-mate Grégoire Munster – in Greece. But being forced to alter his approach as a result might in fact have helped the Irishman eliminate a flaw he’s become aware of in his driving style.
Speaking to DirtFish after the event, McErlean reflected: “It’s been pretty tough inside and outside the car. Some things were definitely self-inflicted because our run wide on Saturday morning, damaging the rear and spending, what, 45 minutes in the heat trying to repair the car, was very physically demanding.
Greece's rough roads took their toll on the M-Sport Pumas
“After that it’s hard to pick yourself up and go, and throughout the whole day we had some issues.
“[Sunday] was nicer – I had some sort of rhythm and tried some things with the driving [style] to stay off the handbrake because we’ve noticed in the last couple of events that we’re maybe on it too much. It’s nice to try these things and actually see the time difference.
“Obviously you have to deal with it whenever you don’t have it. Maybe the next time I pull the handbrake unnecessarily, Eoin [Treacy, co-driver] can stab me!”
If he can successfully dial out that flaw, without any jabs in the ribs (or worse) from Treacy, McErlean is confident that he and his Puma will perform strongly at the upcoming fast gravel rallies.
“Going into Estonia and Finland, last year whenever we went to the fast gravel, Latvia and Poland, in the Rally2 car, we weren’t actually that far away from the top guys like Oliver [Solberg], who we know is a top driver,” he added.
Treacy might let McErlean tug the handbrake in a hairpin - but nowhere else!
“It’s different characteristics. Maybe it’ll help the car a little bit more with the faster speed. We’ve seen in the splits, whenever the stage is a little faster we can be there or thereabouts.”
Team-mate Mārtiņš Sesks certainly impressed with his cameos in Poland and Latvia last year and provides someone that McErlean can measure himself against.
McErlean said: “I think we still have to keep on benchmarking ourselves off our team-mates because it’s the same package, same car – and we’re doing not so bad when we look at that.
“You always want to see how quick the car can go and there’s no better place to go with Mārtiņš and his experience of these roads to benchmark yourself because sometimes you question the car. But if someone else is going quicker then obviously the car is capable of more.
“I’ve no doubt the car is capable of more than what I’m doing at the minute but we have to expect that. It’s nice to have him and Grég [Munster] to benchmark off but we still want to beat them.”
