We don't know what motivational sound Sébastien Loeb puts in his ears before getting into his Dacia Sandrider, but we would advise him to put a Kery James classic on loop, Commuters : “We are not condemned to failure, that is the song of the fighters […] Even if I need twice as much courage, twice as much rage. Because there are twice as many obstacles and half as many advantages. And then my victory will taste twice as good. »
So, Sébastien Loeb does not know the final victory on the Dakar. Since his first steps on the legendary rally raid in 2016, the nine-time WRC world champion has never climbed to the highest step of the podium (2nd in 2017, 2022 and 2023 and 3rd in 2019 and 2024), the fault to a series of incredible bad lucks, while he was often well placed for victory. Lots of punctures, mechanical problems, getting stuck in the dunes, piloting errors, too, everything happened.
The fans of death
So, for 2025, Sébastien Loeb had put in his little list of resolutions that bad luck should stay well away from him. And like any good resolution, it didn't take a week for it to disappear forever. A big fan problem in his Dacia on Sunday on the “48 hours flat” special, which extends over two days for the two at the back who do not follow, and almost forty minutes lost, just a few hours after the start of this 47th edition of the Dakar.
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Problems which forced the former Peugeot and BRX driver, who lost his three fans in the story, to stop several times at the top of the dunes so that the car could cool down, before setting off again to gain momentum to hope to pass another dune. And that, for 50 km. The hassle. “When we dragged ourselves to the first refueling [ravitaillement]it was to give up there, explained Loeb, disappointed. And it happened to me again, I still have bad luck. »
But, thanks to the help of another Dacia crew and luck, with two fans walking again without understanding why and how, the Alsatian finally finished the first part of the special. And he was able, this Monday, to make up part of his delay on much smoother terrain, which did not overheat the car. Results at the end of these “48 hours flat”: a little less than twenty minutes behind the overall leader, the Saudi pilot Yazeed al-Rajhi.
“We have to find the solution”
But don't think that Sébastien Loeb has come out of the brambles. We would still bet a good part of our salary on a defection of the fans in the coming days, as the problem has persisted for months and months. As early as July, during the Morocco rally, the driver had already warned about the fan malfunction. And so he was not surprised to find himself with the same pitfalls in Saudi Arabia.
« It's always the same, it's quite difficult for me to understand, but it's like that, explained Loeb on La Chaine L'Equipe. They don't understand how fans work, I think we're in a system that's way too complicated for a fan, but for now that's it. I hope it will work. We have three, if we lose one, we drive with degraded power. If you lose two, you have to stop. In the dunes, it doesn't work with two. Then, with one, it's over. We have to find the solution. »
Especially since the final stages of this Dakar 2025 will be contested in the dunes around Shubaytah. We can already imagine the scene where Loeb, finally seeing himself as prince of the desert after having come back from the dead during the previous stages, sees victory slipping away from him on the edge, observing from the top of a dune, hood open, engine smoking, his opponents depose him one by one.
Win without winning
So, if by some miracle the electronics hold up, the punctures don't come one after the other or a wheel decides not to show up without warning, everything will be in the hands of Loeb and his co-driver to finally get the job done. the grail. Finally, you will still have to be uncompromising when it comes to navigation. Because this year, the Dakar has innovated. The organizers have complicated the task of the cars by separating their route from that of the motorcycles for 45% of the mileage of the specials to prevent the latter from leaving traces, making the work of the cars easier.
The teams therefore play a bit of hide and seek to avoid opening the way to their opponents. And that should be the case again on Wednesday during the marathon stage. So, there is no question of finishing the special on Tuesday among the first. “You must not open [la route]assured Tiphanie Isnard, Dacia Sandriders team principal. Nobody wants to open the marathon. » It should therefore not be surprising if Sébastien Loeb does not finish in the leading group tomorrow. It will then not be bad luck, bad luck or a curse.
“As there will be no trace at all, I think that the gaps will not be to the second or the minute as it was,” he explained before the start of the race. It may be several minutes lost by the first cars compared to those starting behind. It was Carlos (Sainz) who showed us the lesson. He didn't win a special stage last year and he won the rally. » For the moment, Loeb has not won a special. Hope is therefore allowed
