One’s the fresh face on the scene, showing flashes of speed beyond what was expected at times.
The other’s the sophomore driver, threatening to make that next step but not quite outshining his rookie team-mate.
The dynamic between M-Sport team-mates Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean has been an intriguing one of late; a narrative that’s gathered pace after Portugal and Sardinia where it was the less experienced driver who was fastest.
But when we say less experienced, we’re leaning into a debate that points to this week’s Acropolis Rally Greece as its resolution.
For while McErlean has just six Rally1 starts to Munster’s 21, his experience of Portugal and Sardinia combined (prior to 2025) amounted to seven starts, compared to Munster’s four.
So actually who was the lesser experienced of the two? Is experience of the car more important, or experience of the events?
Munster has more Rally1 experience than McErlean, but had less starts in both Portugal and Sardinia
McErlean’s response is perhaps the most enlightening, given you may expect him to play down the factor that’s worked in his favor recently.
“My point of view is yes, experience of the events is very important,” McErlean told DirtFish, “because basically you have pacenotes from previous years.
“You then have the opportunity to work on them before events, to refine them, rather than making them fresh. That makes recce a little bit easier because obviously you’re not as strained writing brand-new pacenotes like we were in the first four events of the year, so I think that’s a massive part of it.”
Certainly McErlean’s pace (with the possible exception of Sweden aside) greatly improved in Portugal and Sardinia relative to Monte Carlo, Kenya and Canarias.
There will also be an element of confidence building as he further understands the machine beneath him, and simply finds his feet among world rallying’s elite. But the inescapable fact is that before 2025 began, McErlean had started Portugal alone more times than he had the first four events combined – and it’s there that he shined the brightest.
Why is experience of events so important?
Monte Carlo was a weaker rally for McErlean, who'd only ever started it once
Nowadays drivers spend hours on the lead up to – and even during – the rally studying onboards to learn the stages. So you may ask: why do they need physical experience of the stages?
But Munster reached for a fascinating metaphor in a language non-drivers can understand.
If you complete the same stage 10 times over on a computer game, do you learn more by driving or by watching?
McErlean picked up the point: “You know how the stages deteriorate, how they can be first/second pass etc. But honestly I think it’s down to pacenotes and having let’s say proper preparation before the event.
“So hopefully we can use our experience from Greece last year from the 2024 stages and 2023 when we did the recce. But honestly I think experience is a lot once you’re going to these type of rallies because each rally’s got different characteristics, different conditions, different surfaces and ultimately it’s knowing what it’ll do.
“Basically you can put full trust in your pacenotes because you know they are bang on.”
Knowing the roads and how they deteriorate is vital
Munster has always been keen to point out the value of event experience – understandable, considering he arrived in the Rally1 class with just 22 starts to his name.
“That’s what I always claim,” he told DirtFish. “If you’ve got the experience, like you said, you’re faster – like Mãrtiņš [Sesks] in Latvia where he was fighting for a podium in his second entry in a Rally1.
“So I think the same, like, in Greece I have more knowledge, so yeah, I expect to be more competitive in Greece than in Sardinia or Portugal.”
The reference to Sesks is an intriguing one, because he too is of the belief that experience of rallies is what really counts.
“The knowledge of races is incredible,” Sesks told DirtFish – something he proved when Poland and Latvia were added to the WRC calendar last year.
“And if you look as well in Poland [this year in the ERC], like the stages I’ve done previously, and as well last year with Rally1, [were the ones where] this year we had the strongest performances. So that’s an easy answer to this.”
Sesks has never been to Greece in his life, let alone for the rally, so as he said on social media when sharing a DirtFish article last week: “Being on top at the races we have known for years does not mean we will be at the top at one we’ve never been [to].
“These races are new terrain for me and Renãrs [Francis, co-driver], and there is a long way to go until we see the top of the standings.”
The same rings true for Munster and McErlean, only attention is brewing as to how they stack up against one another.
To an extent that is slightly unfair on Munster, who can almost only lose. When he’s been comfortably quicker than McErlean, nobody bats an eyelid because McErlean is learning and less experience both in terms of specific event, and Rally1, mileage. But as soon as Munster’s been beaten, questions have been asked.
However the Luxembourger accepts this is part of rallying: “I think it’s normal,” he said. “Every driver is always getting compared.”
But put simply, Munster cannot afford to be beaten for pace by McErlean in Greece, as he’s the one with the upper-hand in terms of experience at the Acropolis; three starts to McErlean’s one (plus one year of recce).
How the pair stack up against one another this weekend could, ultimately, prove to be conclusive.
