Fri 31 Jan 2025

McErlean’s Rally1 Debut Fuels Excitement for Future Rounds

Irishman Josh McErlean emerged from the FIA World Rally Championship’s deepest end with a smile after last week’s Rallye Monte-Carlo.

Round one of this year’s series marked the 25-year-old’s step up to the top tier of the world championship competition, and he was thrilled with a seventh-place finish on his debut in the Ford Puma Rally1.

Despite the challenging conditions, the Motorsport Ireland Academy driver gained valuable insights working with the series’ most experienced team.

“Seventh overall at the Monte-Carlo Rally,” he smiled. “What a way to kick off our Rally1 debut with the Ford Puma. It’s been a massive challenge with so many new elements: new car, new team, new co-driver [in Eoin Treacy], and Hankook tyres. But we kept our heads, did our own thing, and learned every step of the way. The conditions have been so demanding, but it’s been thoroughly enjoyable.”

McErlean was quick to thank Treacy for a flawless weekend on the pace notes. Monte-Carlo marked the 26-year-old co-driver’s third-ever WRC event and his first in top-level machinery.

“It was probably a bigger step for Eoin than it was for me,” McErlean said. “He obviously hasn’t done a lot of WRC events, but he did a top job all weekend.

“He’s jumped into that seat at very late notice, and to be in this position after Monte-Carlo – we’ve done a full rally together now, we’ve done a recce, so it’s only going to get better now.”

McErlean is looking forward to what he hopes will be a more straightforward Rally Sweden (13–16 February), with a pre-event test in Finland planned ahead of the snow-and-ice event.

“Driving the car [in Monte-Carlo] was one thing, but taking in all the information from the route note crews and weather crews at the same time was everything all at once. In Sweden, obviously it’s a snow rally, it’s quite straightforward and there’s not so much information from that side.

“We’ve been there once in 2022, and we’ve got some experience from ice-driving schools and so on. Of course, a Rally1 car is going to be quite different from a Tuthill Porsche, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Sweden
Starts: Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 8:00:00 AM
Spain
Starts: Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 7:00:00 AM
Turkey
Starts: Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 8:30:00 AM