Sébastien Loeb in test with M-Sport in Spain!

The return of Sebastien loeb in WRC seems to be taking shape! At the stage of discussions in August, before the track seems to cool down, the arrival of the nine-time World Champion within the M-Sport team reappears this Tuesday as a strong probability. And for good reason, the Alsatian was today at the wheel of the Ford Puma Rally1 on Spanish roads. For the moment, it will be necessary to be satisfied with a short video extract, relayed by the Rally of Spain, which took place last weekend, but the information inevitably becomes hot!

Indeed, it is hard to imagine Sébastien Loeb having taken the road to the Iberian Peninsula to simply test the future car of the British team without having a precise idea for the next day. His partial return has already been mentioned several times, but Richard Millener, director of the team supported by Ford, had rather showered the French hopes a few days ago by ensuring that there was « a lot of obstacles to do something with Seb ».

To date, M-Sport has only confirmed one driver for the 2022 season in the person of Craig Breen, debauched at Hyundai and who will compete in all rallies next season. Adrien Fourmaux seems well placed to inherit a starting place, he who has participated in the development of the Puma hybrid in recent months, while the hypothesis of a third car shared by Gus Greensmith and a fourth driver is plausible. This fourth man could therefore be Sébastien Loeb, who has not raced in the WRC since the two rallies in which he participated with Hyundai in 2020.

If the agreement were to be concluded between M-Sport and Sébastien Loeb, which we would suppose accompanied by Daniel Elena, it remains to be seen in what proportions the French would engage. This partial return to the WRC would indeed have to be arranged with its other activities, starting with the Dakar project with BRX Prodrive. The 2022 edition of the Rallye-Raid will also end just one week before the next Rallye Monte-Carlo, in January.

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena no longer make common cause in rally-raid, where the driver and his team have decided to call on another co-driver. Nevertheless, despite the turmoil caused by this separation, it is not complete and the two men have again evolved together very recently on the Rallye du Mont-Blanc Morzine.