The 25-year-old Luxembourger has retired from two of the season’s first four rallies, and in Sweden, he found himself in the snow banks multiple times. In Croatia in April, Munster managed to finish without retiring but was notably the slowest of the Rally1 cars.
The upcoming Rally de Portugal poses a significant challenge for the M-Sport Ford rookie. Last year, he competed in Portugal, but his race ended early on the first stage due to a crash, resulting in a loss of valuable experience.
“We had a good pre-event test, with two days of testing last week. Portugal will be a lot like Sardinia, a bit of a tricky one for us because we don’t have a lot of experience compared to our fellow competitors,” Munster says.
“Thanks to my great idea to roll the car on the first stage of the rally last year, it means we lack the knowledge of the stages, so we will try to grab a lot of experience in both Portugal and Sardinia to move forward into the second part of the season’s gravel rallies with confidence.”
Team principal Richard Millener also acknowledges that gaining experience is most important. At some point in the season, however, it will also be necessary to demonstrate speed.
“Gregoire will have a little bit more work to do, he has less experience here and will need to work hard to stay in step with those who have more knowledge of the stages,” Millener states.
“But he showed some good pace in the Puma in Kenya, so he can be strong on loose surfaces and just needs to aim for another strong, clean drive.”
