Munster’s results have been particularly disappointing in the first three events of the season, and he now hopes that a return to tarmac will inject some much-needed energy into his campaign.
A telling sign of Munster’s struggles is that he has not yet finished in the top ten in any event, earning just three WRC points so far.
The situation is made even more stark by the fact that his teammate, Adrien Fourmaux, has had an outstanding start to the season, emerging as one of the early positive surprises.
“Of course, it’s a bit disappointing,” Munster admitted in an interview with Dirtfish.
“You don’t want to start the season like that. But I think everyone knew as well that we were the least experienced one – not just about the Rally1 car, but in general with the World Rally Championship and the events,” Munster continued.
Munster crashed out in January’s Rally Monte Carlo, and met a similar fate in Sweden. In Sweden, the Luxembourger finished the overall competition in 23rd place after hitting a snowbank. However, Munster emphasizes that the mistakes in each competition have been slightly different.
“We made some small mistakes but every time it was different one,” Munster reminded.
“All kinds of small mistakes from my side, my fault. But we look for the light at the end of the tunnel and in Croatia, we go better,” Munster said.
At 25, Munster is still quite green when it comes to competing in the WRC’s main class.
“So you have to account a bit for the fact that we have less experience than the others. But it doesn’t excuse our mistakes and we need to try to look at why they keep happening and try to find a solution so it doesn’t anymore,” Munster stated.
Munster couldn’t immediately say how to eliminate future mistakes.
“For me, it’s a bit difficult to say because, like I said, it’s three different errors we did. A bit with speed, with knowledge of the car and I think we just have to be a bit patient and things will come together.”
In the Croatia Rally, Munster will be on a surface he’s more familiar with.
“I think on (Croatia) rally we have a bit more experience with the track, with the event in general. And also the fact it’s tarmac, which I’m more, I would say, experienced on because of where I drove in the past; in Germany, in Belgium, it’s all tarmac.”
“So I think we might be a bit more at ease there.”
