Nine world championships, 80 wins, and 120 podiums. These achievements make Loeb one of the greatest rally drivers in history. Perhaps even the greatest.
Loeb’s pace has hardly slowed, even though it’s been over 11 years since his last WRC title. The French icon made his latest stint in the WRC in the 2022 season, participating in four rallies with M-Sport’s Ford Puma Rally1 car.
And, to underscore his excellence, he won Rally Monte Carlo, becoming the oldest winner of a WRC event in history and the first victor of the new hybrid era.
Impressive feats in themselves.
Loeb hasn’t been seen on WRC stages since the 2022 season, but he has not retired from driving. In recent years, Loeb has focused on desert rallies, with his dream being to conquer the iconic Dakar Rally.
“I don’t see myself stopping driving just yet,” Loeb recently told the news agency AFP in an interview.
In Dakar Rally held in January, Loeb finished third driving for the BRX team. Now, the veteran faces a new challenge, as next year he will start Dakar with Dacia, which is making its entry into rally raid.
“When you bring out a brand new car for a Dakar, there’s a lot of work in terms of tuning, development, adjustments, reliability, etc. Alongside that, I’m going to try to do other rally-raids to keep in practice with Fabian (Lurquin, his co-driver) but I don’t know yet where, what and how. However, I will be at the Rally of Morocco (in October), which will be our first race with Dacia,” Loeb outlined his plans for this year.
Spanish rally legend Carlos Sainz showed in this year’s Dakar that one can succeed in a true endurance race at an older age. Sainz claimed his fourth Dakar win at 61.
Loeb does not rule out that his driving career could continue for a long time.
“I’ve never projected myself into a long-term future. Today, this is what I enjoy, and I can’t see myself stopping driving at the moment because it remains my passion. Maybe in ten years, I’ll still be here, maybe not. What I especially tell myself is that he (Sainz) won the Dakar at 61 years old, so I might still have a few years ahead of me to achieve it.”
Loeb has not officially ended his WRC career, but he is unlikely to be seen at the WRC in the near future.
“It’s complicated in the WRC today, I’m now linked to a manufacturer, so we can’t represent other brands.”
