WRC
Sébastien Loeb has announced that he will be taking part in his fourth Dakar Rally. Take a closer look at his incredible and varied career from the WRC to Le Mans, World Rallycross and Dakar.
Fresh from winning his first WRC event in over five years, the nine-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb will be tackling the Dakar Rally in 2019 with independent French team PH Sport.
Loeb will be joined by longtime co-driver Daniel Elena and the French ace will be hoping to become the first privateer to win the Dakar Rally since Jean-Louis Schlesser back in 2000.
“Throughout my career I’ve always been considered to be a favourite,” said Loeb. “While I’m obviously motivated by winning, having fun is important too. So taking part in the 2019 Dakar with Daniel, as private outsiders, is a fantastic challenge.
"I’m ready to give it a go: a little bit like my three WRC appearances this year, where success was far from being guaranteed. Except this time, I’m in a private team, which obviously makes it more difficult.”
Until recently it looked like Loeb would be sitting out the 2019 event, after competing in the last three events at the wheel of a Team Peugeot Total machine, and scoring an impressive second place finish in 2017.
As he prepares to get stuck into his fourth Dakar adventure take a look at Loeb's incredible career timeline, spanning a mind-boggling range of motorsports disciplines from the WRC to endurance racing and World Rallycross.
1998 - 2000: pre-World Rally Championship domination
1999: French Citroën Saxo Trophy Winner
2001: Junior World Rally Champion
Loeb quit school to follow his dream of becoming a professional rally driver. After abandoning his electrical engineering studies Loeb entered domestic rally events in 1998 and a year later he would be crowned the French Citroën Saxo Trophy Champion.
This early success caught the eye of Citroën Sport's Guy Fréquelin. He guided Loeb into the Junior World Rally Championship, a title the Frenchman won in dominant fashion in 2001. This success earned him promotion to Citroën's World Rally Championship programme for 2002.
2004 - 2012: World Rally Championship dominance
Loeb's first WRC win came at Rallye Deutschland in 2002 and in his first full WRC campaign in 2003 Loeb won three events driving for Citroën ending the season just a point behind eventual winner Petter Solberg.
The 2004 season would be the beginning of a record-breaking run for Loeb...
2004: Six victories and six second place finishes gave Loeb his first WRC title in dominant fashion and the French driver proved he could win on surfaces other than tarmac with impressive victories on gravel surfaces in Cyprus, Australia and Turkey.
2005: Loeb ruthlessly defended his WRC crown with 10 victories, including an unbroken streak of six rallies. He ended the season 56 points ahead of Petter Solberg.
Loeb's victory at the Tour de Corse was particularly notable as he managed to win every every stage, becoming the first driver in WRC history to do so.
2006: Racing a privately entered Citroën, Loeb has to give best to Marcus Grönholm at the first two rounds in Monte Carlo and Sweden, but by Rally Mexico normal service was resumed as Loeb won five consecutive events and all but sealed a hat-trick of WRC titles.
It wasn't all plain sailing and Loeb was forced to miss the final four rallies of the season after injuring his arm in a mountain biking accident. Despite this, his closest rival Grönholm could not overhaul the Frenchman's points advantage.
2007: Loeb was back in the Citroën works team as they re-entered the WRC with the new C4 and rivals Ford with double world champion Grönholm started the season strongly ensuring the Frenchman would not have it all his own way in 2007.
In a dramatic season-long battle between Loeb and Grönholm in which both drivers felt the pressure, it would be Loeb who would edge out his Finnish rival at Wales Rally GB by finishing third at the season finale and clinching his fourth title by four points.
2008: As well as claiming a record fifth Monte Carlo Rally win, Loeb also became only the fourth non-Nordic driver to win Rally Finland in nearly 60 years of the event.
Loeb would win 11 WRC events in total and end up claiming his fifth world title 19 points ahead of a hard charging Mikko Hirvonen.
2009: In a tight season-long battle with Ford's Hirvonen, the 2009 WRC battle would come down to the final round in Wales where Loeb drove one of the performances of his career to win his sixth world title.
Trailing Hirvonen by a point, Loeb drove superbly at Wales Rally GB and over just two stages managed to open up a gap of 25 seconds to the second place Ford driver and end the season a six-time WRC champion by a single point.
2010: With eight rally wins Loeb was back to his dominant best and won his seventh consecutive WRC crown a massive 105 points ahead of nearest challenger Jari-Matti Latvala.
2011: The introduction of new technical regulations for the WRC didn't stop Loeb and Citroën picking up five victories en route to an eighth world championship which he secured at Wales Rally GB as nearest rival Hirvonen crashed out of the season finale.
2012: After notching up a record sixth Monte Carlo Rally win Loeb went on to win eight WRC events including an impressive third Rally Finland victory, making him the only non-Nordic driver to have more than one win.
In September 2012 with his ninth WRC title in sight, Loeb announced he would be leaving the sport to concentrate on new challenges. He would go on to win his final full-time WRC campaign by 57 points.
2005 - 2006: Podium finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Loeb first swapped his familiar Citroën rally car for something completely different in 2005 when he entered the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race with the legendary Pescarolo Sport team in the LMP1 class.
He would retire with mechanical issues, but returned in 2006 to finish an incredible second overall, behind the dominant Audi R10, driving alongside compatriots Franck Montagny and Éric Hélary.
2012: X Games gold medal
In the summer of 2012, Loeb took a break from trying for his ninth WRC title and took part in the X Games extravaganza in Los Angeles, competing in the Rallycross section.
The Frenchman steamed to victory and took the gold medal in his debut X Games appearance, comfortably beating nearest challenger Ken Block.
WRC rival Marcus Grönholm missed out on battling with Loeb for the win as the Finnish driver was hospitalised following a heavy practice accident.
2013 - 2018: Part-time WRC schedule and GT racing
Despite only entering four WRC events in 2013, Loeb still managed to win in Monte Carlo and Argentina and finished second at Rally Sweden.
Sadly for Loeb in his fourth and final cameo of the 2013 season, he crashed out of his home event, Rallye de France in Alsace, as he rolled his Citroën into a ditch on stage 15.
In 2015, Loeb entered just the one event at Monte Carlo and managed to lead the early stages before colliding with a rock and finishing in eighth position.
Loeb competed in three WRC events in 2018, getting behind the wheel of a Citroën C3 WRC in Corsica, Mexico, sensationally winning Rally Spain by three seconds from fierce rival and 2017 champion Sébastien Ogier.
In 2013 Loeb returned to sportscar racing and entered his own McLaren MP4 GT3 in the FIA GT Series and won four races en route to an impressive fourth in the championship
On top of this, in 2013 Leob also dabbled in the Formula One-supporting Porsche Supercup series and also guested at his home event in the European Rallycross Championship.
Loeb returned to the WRC for one race in 2015, the opening round of the championship at Monte Carlo. The Frenchman actually led the early stages in his Citroën before eventually coming home in eighth.
2013: Smashes Pikes Peak Hillclimb record
Back in 2013 Loeb strapped himself into a specially built Peugeot 208 T16 and shattered Rhys Millen's record for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a run up the mountain in 8m 13.878s.
It was Loeb's first visit to the Race to the Clouds and Peugeot's first trip to Colorado since their legendary successes with Ari Vatanen in the late 80s.
2014 - 2015: Winning in the World Touring Car Championship
Loeb contested two full seasons in the World Touring Car Championship for the Citroën WTCC team and clocked up six victories.
Driving for the dominant Citroën outfit Loeb won races in in Morocco, Slovakia, Argentina, France and Thailand and would finish third in the championship in both of his WTCC campaigns in 2014 and 2015 behind teammates José María López and Yvan Muller.
2016 - 2018: World Rallycross Championship
In 2016 Loeb competed a full World Rallycross schedule, driving for the Peugeot-Hansen squad and finished up fifth in the standings in his debut season, the highlight being an impressive victory at the Latvian round of the championship.
The 2017 season proved winless for Loeb, but he did finish on the podium six times in the 12-race series and returned to the top step of the podium in 2018 with victory at the World RX of Belgium.
2016 - present: Dakar Rally - stage wins and a podium finish
In 2016, Loeb led his first Dakar Rally during the event's early stages at the wheel of his Peugeot 2008 DKR but his charge was ended following a puncture and other mechanical gremlins. The Frenchman ended up a creditable ninth place with four stage wins.
In 2017, Loeb finished a superb second just 19 seconds behind Peugeot teammate Stephane Peterhansel, aka 'Mr Dakar', who took his 13th Dakar Rally win.
Peterhansel's winning margin over Loeb was just 5m13s and the two teammates were joined by Cyril Despres, who came home some 33 minutes later.
The 2018 Dakar Rally ended in disappointment on day five for Loeb. Despite claiming a stage win previously, a collision led to damage not only to the car, but also to Loeb's co-driver Daniel Elena, who sustained a back injury.
This forced Loeb's retirement from the event, and it is safe to say that he will be hoping to exorcise the bad memories of the 2018 event and claim that elusive Dakar Rally victory in Peru.
Next year’s 41st Dakar Rally takes place from January 6-17, covering approximately 5,000 kilometres over 10 stages. As usual, just getting to the finish will be an achievement.
