Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Rally ace Loeb praises electric motorsport - 'As a driver, I enjoy it'
Electric motorsport is becoming more and more prominent, but while swathes of fans remain unconvinced, the alternative take on the sport has one high-profile backer.
Sebastien Loeb has raced – and won – in just about everything. Aside from his nine World Rally Championship titles, he’s also won in sports cars, touring cars, rallycross, rally raid, and at Pikes Peak. He recently added an Extreme E title to his legendary resume, his first all-electric title. And while he’s very much of the old-school ilk, he certainly isn’t against the direction motorsport is starting to take.
“The power of the electric car is really good and the drivability is also good,” Loeb said at the recent Extreme E season finale in Uruguay. “Driving with the electric car is as fun for us as the other one in the car.
“For sure, from outside it’s not exactly the same,” he admitted. “It doesn’t look the same because we still have passion for motorsport like we know from the past, but I think for the future it’s a normal evolution to go this way.
“On the road, cars are getting more and more electric so I think motorsport has to follow the evolution of the world and to be electric now, as a driver, I enjoy it," Loeb said. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images
Despite his positive take on electric motorsport, Loeb did admit that the alternative propulsion solution isn’t quite ready for every discipline, pointing out the Dakar rally – which he will contest between 31 December and 15 January 2023 – as being one where battery power wouldn’t quite work just yet.
“It is too far to do the Dakar with an electric car because we have power but no endurance,” he said. “But that’s the technology and it’s improving every day and every year. We’ll see in the future, but driving an electric car when the battle is nice -- I enjoy it.”
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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