Joined the 555 Subaru World Rally Team on a two-year contract as Colin McRae's co-driver. With 6 retirements and 5 wins, Grist and McRae came 2nd overall with 62 points, giving the Subaru team the manufacturer's title. In 1998, Grist and McRae had 5 retirements and 3 wins together with the same team, with the win in Corsica, giving Grist his first win on tarmac. The team finished 3rd with 45 points and gave Subaru their third consecutive manufacturer's title. In 1999 Grist and McRae moved from Subaru to the M-sport Ford team of Malcolm Wilson, Grist's driver during the 1990 to 1991 WRC seasons, where they had two consecutive wins at the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal. However, due to reliability issues with the new Ford Focus WRC they only managed to finish 6th in the WRC with 23 points. The 1999 season of retirements only finished in the February 2000 when they finished 3rd in the Swedish Rally. However, even with two wins and three seconds to support Sweden's third place a further 6 retirements after the initial Monte Carlo Rally retirement meant that they ended up 4th in the championship with 43 points overall. With the improvement in reliability of the Focus WRC 00 towards the later half of 2000 Grist joined with McRae, signed a further two-year contract with Ford, and started 2001 with three retirements and a 9th at the Swedish Rally. The middle of the 2001 season showed better with 3 consecutive wins, followed by a retirement on the Safari Rally, and then two podium finishes. The season ended with a 2nd place in the championship and 42 points, two points behind fellow Brit, his arch rival Richard Burns. 2002 was Grist's last competitive season of WRC, and again saw him co-drive for McRae and Ford. During this year, there were 4 retirements and 2 wins, one of these being the Acropolis Rally, making four consecutive wins in Greece, and the other being the last Safari Rally, on its 50th anniversary. However, several disagreements between Grist and McRae led to their split after the Rally New Zealand conflict, and Derek Ringer, McRae's old co-driver took over and finished the championship with him.