Nine-time FIA World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb will join Team Peugeot-Hansen to compete in all 12 rounds of this year’s FIA World Rallycross Championship. Loeb will partner last year’s runner-up Timmy Hansen in a two-car squad with both drivers piloting a Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar.
“I’m very excited by this opportunity to participate in the full FIA World Rallycross Championship for the first time,” explained the world’s most successful rally driver. “Over the years I have been fortunate to participate in some truly amazing racing, but rallycross – with the sheer power and the competiveness of the Peugeot 208 WRX plus the intense nature of the competition – will be something very special. The car and the strategy for this type of racing is completely new to me, so I have a lot to learn, but I hope I can be competitive pretty soon.”
Loeb’s test with the team’s race car was held at Hansen’s home country, over a challenging ice track on a frozen lake in Are, Sweden.
Hansen and Loeb will aim to win both the World RX team and driver titles this year. Hansen concluded: “I’ve looked up to Sebastien Loeb my entire life: I even met him once to get his autograph. So to work with him now is like a dream come true for me. I have a lot to learn still, so to get advice from him will be amazing.
The opening round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship kicks off in Montalegre, Portugal, from 15-17 April.
For those who have yet to see a rallycross race – live or on TV – the sport combines the best of racing and rallying by pitting small groups of competitors against each other on a mixed asphalt and gravel circuit over a series of heats. They are gradually eliminated all the way down to a breath-taking final, when the very quickest and bravest fight it out for overall honours.
With every final containing competitors separated by just centimetres, and combined total of around 3500 horsepower thanks to cars that accelerate faster than Formula One, rallycross is one of the most spectacular and fastest-growing forms of motorsport in the world.
