Breaking news
WRC
Loeb admits win makes 2019 WRC campaign more tempting
Sebastien Loeb says his Rally Spain victory has made a 2019 World Rally Championship programme more tempting.
David Evans
Published: Oct 29, 2018, 2:48 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Nine-time WRC champion Loeb made a comeback with a three-event programme for Citroen this year and took a shock triumph in Catalunya on the last of those outings at the weekend.
That Citroen deal was thought unlikely to continue into 2019, when the team will run Loeb's former arch-rival Sebastien Ogier after signing him from M-Sport Ford.
But Loeb now has no full-time programme for next season following Peugeot's decision to pull out of the World Rallycross Championship.
The 44-year-old admitted Spain had underlined that rallying was where he felt most at home.
"It was a nice feeling to fight again and to win and maybe this does give me more desire to come back next year," Loeb said.
"This is where I feel better, rallying is my discipline. But in another way, I know why I retired: it's a lot of time and involvement.
"Will I come back full-time? No, it's not what I want. Will I come back for some rallies? Maybe, but even that is complicated."
After his WRC exit, Loeb had initially returned to rallying with Peugeot's Dakar programme but that also ended this year.
He said Peugeot CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato's decision to can the World RX effort was a total surprise to him.
"I didn't know this was happening," said Loeb. "One or two weeks ago I was sure I would do a full season in World Rallycross [in 2019] and now I have nothing.
"I didn't think about the future before now, to be honest I didn't really have the time."
Loeb added that he would use the coming week to properly assess his 2019 options.
Asked if taking Peugeot's 208 World RX cars in-house with his Sebastien Loeb Racing team was a possibility, he told Motorsport.com: "That's one of the options we're thinking about."
SLR has been running its own 208 for Gregoire Demoustier in RX this year.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Catalunya WRC: Loeb fends off Ogier to win rally
Next article Meeke wasn't enjoying WRC in final Citroen years
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
David Evans
How the much-missed Richard Burns scaled the WRC mountain
WRC
WRC 11 mo
How the much-missed Richard Burns scaled the WRC mountain
M-Sport pins hopes on major mid-2020 engine upgrade
WRC
WRC Jan 15, 2020
M-Sport pins hopes on major mid-2020 engine upgrade
Hanninen to co-drive for Latvala in Sweden
WRC
WRC
Rally Sweden
Jan 14, 2020
Hanninen to co-drive for Latvala in Sweden
More from
Sébastien Loeb
Sebastien Loeb tests again as Project Rally One submits WRC homologation papers
WRC
WRC 3 d
Sebastien Loeb tests again as Project Rally One submits WRC homologation papers
Sebastien Loeb tests new Project Rally One 2027 WRC car
WRC
WRC
Rally Italy
1 mo
Sebastien Loeb tests new Project Rally One 2027 WRC car
Sebastien Loeb to make traditional stage rallying return
WRC
WRC 5 mo
Sebastien Loeb to make traditional stage rallying return
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Dec 17, 2024
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC Jan 10, 2020
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Top Stories of 2019, #7: Citroen quits amid WRC shake-up
WRC
WRC Dec 25, 2019
Top Stories of 2019, #7: Citroen quits amid WRC shake-up
Latest news
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
1 h
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
3 h
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe