LOEBLEFTWITHNO DRIVE...FORNOW
Out-of-workfrenchlegendlookingatjoboptionsfor2019season
Sebastien Loeb is heading into a new season without a Peugeot-citroen agreement for the first time in almost two decades.
Confirmation that Citroen will only run two cars ( see page 14) in the World Rally Championship allied to Peugeot’s departure from World Rallycross means the ninetime champion is without a full-time drive in 2019. Loeb has been employed by the PSA Group every year since 1999.
Loeb told MN he is open to offers for the coming year and said he wouldn’t rule anything out.
Loeb said: “At the moment, I have nothing and I am open to discussions with any team in any discipline. It’s hard because of the late news from World Rallycross about Peugeot stopping – I was 100 per cent concentrated on that, but now I have to find another drive. There are talks with some manufacturers about some things, but nothing is done and everything is possible.”
Loeb contested a three-event WRC programme with Citroen as part of a wider PSA Group contract, which encompassed his participation with Peugeot in World RX, in 2018.
“At the moment my contract with PSA ends at the end of December,” Loeb said. “For next season, nothing is done and I am free for next year.”
Loeb’s only commitment in 2019 is Dakar, where he will compete in a Peugeot 3008DKR with the PH Sport team.
With two seasons of World Touring Car Championship experience under his belt, there’s the potential for a return to racing – possibly with his own Sebastien Loeb Racing squad. But it’s rallycross and rallying which remain Loeb’s passion.
After winning Rally of Spain, Citroen’s only WRC success of the season, Loeb talked of how comfortable he’d felt back in the sport where he started his career.
“Rallying is what brought me to motorsport,” he said, “it’s the discipline where I feel most at home and able to enjoy [it]. I know this sport. I don’t want to come back full-time, I know the reasons why I wanted to stop [in the WRC] and these stay the same, but it would be interesting to think about some more rallies.”
Loeb’s hopes of remaining in World Rallycross look to be fading as he tries to source backing to land Peugeot’s 208 WRXS for his team to run.
“I would say this is very far away now,” said Loeb. “The cost to rent them is too high for me. I am trying to find some backers and we need a lot of sponsors, but at the moment it’s not looking so good. I’m still fighting, but let’s see.”
Loeb admitted WRX remained an attractive option for next year and, if an electric solution could be found, for the future.
“This is what I am working for [to continue in WRX],” said Loeb. “What made Peugeot retire [from WRX] was the decision not to go for electric, this was a major problem for them and now for me. Compared with other motorsports, RX is not so expensive for the manufacturers, but the show is good for the spectators at the events and on TV.
“Look at Formula E, the show is not so good, but it has good promotion and it’s exciting for the manufacturers. But when you see it on TV, it’s not as nice as RX could be.
“But we don’t have the promotion. In France, [WRX] is not really on television, people don’t know about it. I meet people in airports, in the street and they say: ‘Oh, how are you? How are you enjoying retirement? Don’t you miss the driving?’ I say: ‘But I am competing in World Rallycross…’ and they know nothing about this.
“We need to improve the communication. For me, we need to make it more like an American show, it needs more atmosphere – we need to make people talk about the sport more.”
More immediately, Loeb said costs needed to be cut for next season, starting with an 11-round calendar which features four long-haul races.
“It [the 2019 World RX season] will be for privateers, so for 2019, the most direct solution is to reduce the costs and one way to do this is with the calendar,” Loeb added.
Kalle Rovanpera feels he could be ready to step into a full-time World Rally Car seat this time next year – and Skoda is ready to release him from his contract to make that move.
There’s strong speculation that Rovanpera’s manager Timo Jouhki already has the 18-year-old’s future tied down in a long-term agreement with another of his former drivers, Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Tommi Makinen.
Both Jari-matti Latvala and Kris Meeke were given singleseason agreements for 2019, with one of them widely expected to step aside for Rovanpera.
The son of one-time world rally winner Harri remains a Skoda factory driver for a second season in succession next year, contesting as many WRC rounds as possible. When he’s not driving a works Fabia R5, Rovanpera will use a private car run by Toni Gardemeister’s team.
Rovanpera told MN: “I won’t do any national rallies next year, just the world championship and the events which I don’t do with the [factory] team, if I haven’t already done them, then I will try to do them with the private car. Next year is about the experience for me.
“It depends how next year goes, but after that I think I can be ready if we get that experience and the speed is good.
“If I drive two years or three years in WRC2, I don’t mind. I’m not in such a hurry.”
But neither is he focused on the WRC2 title.
“WRC2 title is not what it’s about for me,” he said. “It’s not like I’m going there to chase for the title. It’s about the experience for the rallies for me and to make myself better and make myself really fast.”
Skoda team manager Pavel Hortek confirmed the door could be opened ahead of his contract expiring, if Rovanpera is ready to step up to a World Rally Car after next year.
“I can tell you we have a longterm agreement with Kalle,” said Hortek. “But like you saw with Juho [Hanninen] and Esapekka [Lappi] we have never broken the opportunity for a young driver when he came to us and said: ‘Guys, I have the proposal to go higher’. We never stopped them.
“Kalle is a talented young guy and we wait for his future.”