Sébastien Loeb. Not just an icon of rallying, but a legend of motorsport. 9 times a World Rally champion, 78 times a WRC rally winner and a once in a generation talent.Over the course of his incredible rallying career, he has become synonymous with Citroen, the brand he has been aligned with since 1998. Last week, to the surprise of many including Loeb himself, Citroen announced they would no longer employ the 41 year old Frenchman after two seasons in the World Touring Car Championship.
He remains with the PSA Group, which controls Citroen, by signing for Peugeot’s Rally Raid project in 2016, but considering his recent career progression, it’d make sense for Loeb to want a race programme for 2016 and beyond too.
Could Peugeot could put together a package for him? Perhaps, but logic dictates that they’d need to focus on the development of the new 2008 Dakar before moving on to a circuit racing project. As far as I’m concerned, his home lies beyond the PSA group and beyond France – somewhere he can race and rally to his hearts content.
I believe Sébastien Loeb could be on his way to Toyota for 2017. While that would be quite the departure, there are several valid reasons why the move could work.
Toyota have been working hard in preparation for their WRC return
The Japanese marque has been planning its return to the WRC for some time, with former world champion Tommi Mäkinen at the helm of the project which looks set to hit the stages in anger in 2017. While I have no doubt the drivers piloting their development cars are highly talented individuals, there is absolutely no way Mäkinen and co. would turn down the services of Sébastien Loeb, even if he wouldn’t want to commit to a full-time WRC drive, and even if he had a very specific clause in his contract allowing him to return to Le Mans over a decade after his attempts with Pescarolo in 2005 and 2006.
Even though Loeb is best known as a rally driver, there’s no denying his prowess behind the wheel of a racing car. Most recently he has won six races for Citroen in the World Touring Car Championship over two seasons – while that particular championship isn’t in prime health right now and may collapse entirely if Citroen pull out at the end of next season, the victories are no mean feat.
He also came close to driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix following several successful tests behind the wheel of Red Bull Racing cars, and had aspirations of moving to Formula One permanently for the 2010 season. While this idea was scuppered as the FIA refused to grant him a licence, he raced to four victories in a McLaren MP4-12C in the 2013 FIA GT Series – It could feasibly be speculated that Loeb is the reason Citroen started their WTCC project.
But if Toyota were to evaluate the Frenchman for an LMP1 seat, those two Le Mans entries with Pescarolo would likely be the main point of interest. While his team suffered multiple misfortunes in 2005, he partnered Eric Hélary and Solheil Ayari to second in 2006, splitting the two factory Audi R10 TDIs.
Loeb impressed for Pescarolo at Le Mans
So it’s obvious Loeb is a very capable hand behind the wheel of a racing car, even at an event as strenuous as Le Mans, but the next box they’d have to look at on his application form would be his age; Sébastien Loeb turns 42 this February, just 11 days after the recently retired Toyota LMP1 driver Alexander Wurz also hits that very same milestone. This isn’t necessarily the biggest issue, but Toyota have younger, more experienced circuit racers on their radar, both on their books and elsewhere – they’d have to do a lot of thinking before picking Loeb over any of them.
Of course, employing Sébastien Loeb to compete for your LMP1 team would likely make you the de facto home team at Le Mans, and the publicity of the initial signing would be a PR masterstroke. However, signing a 41 year old over someone younger who’d likely have more relevant experience could well be a bad move long term despite the marketing potential.
The fact that Toyota have committed to WEC until at least the end of 2017 suggests they have unfinished business in LMP1 – new regulations are coming into action that year, and you’d suggest that since they’re going to invest time and effort into an all-new car, they’d want to use it for more than one season. While the WEC season only has eight rounds compared to the dozen or more sporting WTCC and WRC respectively, leaving him more free time even with some rally testing on the side, Toyota would still have to question whether Loeb would want to race full-time for as long as they’d potentially want him to.
Despite that thought lingering, if Loeb was available to Toyota – and I feel he would be if they offered Le Mans or a full WEC campaign – they would bite the bullet and sign him. He has the circuit racing experience and some impressive successes on the track to boot, so Loeb’s age would be the only thing stopping Toyota from accepting his (purely hypothetical) application form, as far as I can see.
With Toyota experiencing a highly disappointing 2015 WEC season, and the value of his feedback to the WRC team, I do believe they would make the investment. The combination of a new car and the publicity Loeb would bring could well be the image refresh the manufacturer needs when the LMP1 regulations receive an overhaul for 2017, and the challenge of a sportscar return could well be exactly what Sébastien Loeb desires as he approaches the latter stages of his career.