Paris (AFP)
Sébastien Loeb will not do the Dakar 2022 with Daniel Elena, the co-driver with whom he has participated five times in the most famous rally-raid and been nine times world rally champions, they announced on Tuesday.
"After 5 Dakar spent together and after discussions with the team (Prodrive, editor's note), we came to the conclusion that it might be good to try something else. It is not without a twinge of the heart that we will not take the start in 2022 as teammates, ”Sébastien Loeb announced on Twitter.
Daniel Elena also announced the news via a video posted on Facebook, subtitled "good road mate", on which he does not hide his disappointment and his incomprehension in the face of the coming decision, he explains, from the British Prodrive team with which the two men rode the Dakar in Saudi Arabia, retiring on the 8th stage.
"Today I received a phone call from Seb ', at 11:45 am, telling me that he would not be leaving with me on the Dakar or whatever because the Prodrive team decided that I was not doing not the case, that I was not sufficiently motivated, that I did not have enough experience, too many navigation errors this year ... ", explains the 48-year-old co-pilot.
The Monegasque began this video by recalling that the collaboration with the Alsatian is "a 23-year-old story".
A duo that dominated rallying for nine years, winning all World Championship titles from 2004 to 2012 and, most recently, helping Hyundai win two constructors' world titles (2019-2020).
Visibly moved, Elena recalls these memories by showing a combination of each period, to finish on that of this year: "In the Dakar this year, with BRX, with Prodrive, it was ... shit".
With Loeb, 47, the two men took part in their fifth Dakar together in early January, the first with Prodrive, but did not finish the event after a series of struggles.
They had retired in 2016 and 2018 but finished 2nd in 2017 and 3rd in 2019.
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