WRC
McErlean focusing on positives after Portugal rollercoaster
Josh McErlean says there is no point dwelling on the negatives and that he and the M-Sport-Ford team must focus on the positives after a challenging Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
The M-Sport-Ford driver described the first pure gravel round of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship season in Portugal as an event with “big ups and big downs.”
McErlean had high hopes of a strong result, returning to the scene where he finished second in the WRC2 class in 2024. The event started in promising fashion with McErlean winning the battle against his Ford Puma team-mates Jon Armstrong and Mārtiņš Sesks.
Josh McErlean in action earlier this month in Portugal
© At World
However, McErlean’s rally began to unravel when his Ford Puma Rally1 failed to start in Friday’s remote service, which resulted in a 50sec penalty for being five minutes late out of service. When the rain hit on Saturday, McErlean suffered two wild moments before becoming a passenger in a crash into the barriers at the waterlogged Lousada rallycross circuit super special.
"The worst place you can go off [is] in the Lousada stage in front of many thousands of people."
After a lengthy rebuild, that wasn’t completed until 3am on Sunday morning, McErlean bounced back and almost delivered a stage win in the first run through Fafe, only to be denied by WRC2 runner Robert Virves, who benefitted from much drier conditions.
Following such a rollercoaster of a rally, the 26-year-old says he must focus on the positives moving forward.
McErlean found himself caught out on a slippery Lousada super special
© At World
“It is frustrating as we had a good couple of days but then it started to go downhill from there and for the whole team. It is one you just have to move on from. There are still plenty of positives to take and there is no point dwelling on the negatives," said McErlean.
“It is so difficult to put into words [what happened] and you couldn’t write even half of what has gone on, and we felt that across the whole team. Hopefully we can all catch a break soon.
“The lads and ladies in the M-Sport team were relentless, working until 3am and I was talking to my engineer in service at 6am, so that shows you how much sleep they got.”
“There were big ups and big downs. Saturday night was a complete disaster and the worst place you can go off [is] in the Lousada stage in front of many thousands of people. I don’t know what we could have done differently.
“Going into the first corner and being the first car on the road, many people have said to me after that it could have happened to anybody.
“It still happened and it put me out but the team did a fantastic job to get me back out on Sunday. To nearly get the fastest time in the first pass through Fafe was a big thing but obviously the road conditions changed and went the other way, but it was good to show some good pace, and we were battling with my team-mates on most stages which was good to see.
McErlean bounced back strongly on Sunday in Portugal
© At World
“The lads and ladies in the M-Sport team were relentless, working until 3am and I was talking to my engineer in service at 6am, so that shows you how much sleep they got.”
McErlean is however taking positives from the pace he showed during the final day in Portugal, which he hopes can put himself into a good mindset for when the WRC heads back to asphalt at FORUM8 Rally Japan next week.
“It is not like I’m coming back from a big crash and you have to bounce back so much,” he added. “On Sunday in Portugal, in places we were not so good, but there were places where we were really good.
“We will take the positives and we are on the Tarmac again. I think we can do some more work at the track at M-Sport to see if we can get a bit closer to the front guys.”
