Rally Raid
For the first time at BP Ultimate Rally Raid Portugal, Rally legend Sébastien Loeb is racing a Taurus T3 Max – and relying on the advice of his protégé Cristina Gutiérrez.
In the past three years, motorsport legend Sébastien Loeb, 50, and Dakar winner Cristina Gutiérrez, 32, have formed a formidable partnership after the nine-time World Rally winner hand-picked the talented Spanish rally driver as his team-mate in the Extreme E championship.
Impressed by her driving ability, determination and work ethic, the Frenchman became her mentor. Loeb and Gutiérrez took Team X44 to runners-up spot in the inaugural Extreme E electric car championship in 2021 before returning the following season to take the title outright. The Spaniard took her first class win in Dakar in 2021 before achieving her first victory at the Dakar Rally in January.
And now the student turns master as Gutiérrez and Loeb compete in BP Ultimate Rally Raid Portugal in the WR2C. Loeb is a three-time runner-up in the Ultimate class at the Dakar Rally, but in Portugal, he steps down to race a Taurus T3 Max buggy that Gutiérrez steered to the top at this year’s Dakar.
From mentor to team-mate – reversed roles for Loeb and Gutiérrez
“This is my first time in a Taurus so when I have questions, I’ll ask Cristina,” said Loeb. “The rally is 1,000 kilometres long so I will have to ask questions about how to best manage the car as we go through the five timed special stages. I want to finish so, above all, I need to know where the limit is.”
“For me, it’s an honour that someone like him values my opinion,” said Cristina. “It’s fun to see Seb competing in the same category, I think he’ll be surprised at the Taurus’s level. I greatly admire Seb for his support and because he’s interested in my performance at each stage of the Dakar. He’s very curious and we share our experiences throughout the rally.”
It’s the latest step for the drivers as they build up to their Dakar return next season as they spearhead the new Dacia Factory team. While the engineers at Dacia and Prodrive develop the Sandrider, Loeb and Gutiérrez will continue to hone their skills in the World Rally Raid Championship ready for testing.
For Sébastien, the Dakar represents the next trophy in a career that has seen the Frenchman conquer the WRC an unbeaten nine times, set the record for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, raced Le Mans, WRX and win the X Games.
The track was on grass and it was very slippery. I was sliding around on the grass and he told me to stop driving it like it was a lawnmower!
For Cristina, it’s the latest step in a career where she has demonstrated she has the drive and the ability but has struggled to find adequate backing as a privateer. Each year, she could take part but lacked the machinery to challenge at the front. Instead, she used her skills to get the car across the finish line in the best position as possible. But during the pandemic, her main sponsor left the Dakar, wrecking her hopes of taking part.
The Extreme E championship offered a lifeline: with every team running with male and female drivers, she was in demand. Sébastien invited Cristina for a test alongside him at X44.
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Cristina Gutiérrez met Sébastien Loeb at a difficult time
“It was very exciting to meet him because it was like meeting a motorsport legend. I had followed him for many years,” said Cristina. “From the moment he got in the car with me, he asked me about my sporting career, which was going through a difficult time. Only a month earlier I had announced I’d stop competing in the Dakar Rally because all my sponsors left due to the pandemic.
“He spoke to Red Bull and they offered me a test drive to join the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team. It was an act of great generosity that I will always appreciate.”
“When we started to work together in Extreme E, she was very impressive, always wanting to improve and always motivated,” explained Loeb. “It’s always easy to work with Cristina because of her talent and attitude.”
Working together in Extreme E, the two quickly struck up a good rapport. From the very first tests, Cristina learned quickly from the Frenchman, both driving skills and people skills to race craft and mind management. “I’ve learned a lot of things, both outside and inside the races. The respect he has for his rivals, the ability to adapt to any type of car from the first moment.
“His passion, the way he gives interviews with journalists, how easy he makes difficult things, the simplicity with which he sees the competition.”
For Sébastien Loeb, this is a new role: in most motorsports, your team-mate is there to be beaten, but sharing duties behind the wheel means he’s taken on the role of mentor to a younger driver while also sharing duties.
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What’s it like to be driving with Cristina Gutiérrez?
“I’m really happy to have Cristina in the team. She has great Dakar experience behind her already,” said Loeb. “While I haven’t really coached another driver and shared my knowledge with them, it feels natural to work this way with Cristina.
“In Extreme E we were driving in the same car, in the same race. Working this way has been a new experience and it’s been very interesting to see how we can push each other to improve our collective performance.”
It perhaps helps that being champion racing drivers is just one aspect to their multi hyphenate talents: Cristina is a leading dentist and Sébastien was a top gymnast with a talent for engineering.
I’m proud of the work we have done together and to see how she has improved
Another lesson learned by Cristina is she appreciates the multiple world champion’s keen sense of humour. “He probably doesn't remember but the funniest piece of advice he gave me was the first time he got in as co-driver with me in the UK.
“The track was on grass and it was very slippery. I was sliding around on the grass and he told me to stop driving it like it was a lawnmower!”
Victories soon followed, and then the championship in 2022. Cristina also rewarded Sébastien’s faith by winning a stage at the Dakar, which proved a milestone in her career, and in 2024, the Spaniard produced a consistent run at the front of the pack to take victory on the final day of the great race, becoming only the second woman to win the Dakar.
“I’m proud of the work we have done together and to see how she has improved. Winning the Extreme E championship together was a great moment for us both,” said Sébastien. “Cristina’s victory in the Challenger class at the last Dakar proves that she now knows how to manage long cross-country rallies. The first thing I said to her was, ‘Congratulations!’ and after that, we talked about her evolution as a driver. That was the perfect result ahead of stepping up to race the Dacia in the Ultimate class at the next Dakar Rally.”
A strong team is a crucial component when it comes to winning the world’s toughest rally
BP Ultimate Rally Raid Portugal is the next step on the road back to the Dakar. Having finished runner-up three times, the man from Alsace is determined to go one better. As Mattias Ekström and Stéphane Peterhansel proved this year by backing up Carlos Sainz on his push for victory in the Ultimate class of the Dakar, a strong team is a crucial component when it comes to winning the world’s toughest endurance race. In Cristina, Loeb has a team-mate with intelligence, skill and grit.
They are already hard at work with the technical team at Dacia and the engineers at Dave Richards’ Prodrive who have developed winning machines for Subaru, Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and, of course, Team X44.
“It has been very nice to work with them because I have been able to see where they place importance,” said Cristina. “I’ve discovered what interests them most when developing a car and the professionalism they have.”
“We have testing planned with Dacia later this year and we’re all exciting for that,” Sébastien added. “I’m sure Cristina will quickly find the rhythm needed to drive our Dacia. I’m sure we will collaborate well, like we have done in the past, and this will help this new team to grow up quickly.”