When you’re a nine-times World Rally Champion, it must feel a bit weird to start learning. But that’s what Sébastien Loeb is doing in 2016, after moving across from long-time employer Citroen to join Peugeot Sport. First up, the Frenchman jumped into Peugeot’s 2008 DKR desert racer and came alarmingly close to winning the legendary Dakar Rally at the first time of asking. And for the rest of this year, he’ll be hurling a 600bhp 208 around as he tackles the World Rallycross Championship. • Peugeot's greatest ever motorsport cars and drivers Rallycross is a world away from rallying – the sport that Loeb dominated between 2004 and 2012. Instead of a single car taking on remote roads and tracks against the clock, there are half a dozen projectiles crammed into a tight circuit that mixes gravel and asphalt. The machinery is a big step up, too, as although the fundamentals are similar (small hatchback, four-wheel drive and a sequential gearbox), the engines are ramped up to 600bhp – almost double what Loeb was used to back in his rallying days. 10 How, then, did he end up here? The answer is simple: at 42, Loeb isn’t quite ready to take up gardening as a full-time hobby. “Once Citroen decided that we wouldn’t continue together, I started speaking to Peugeot about what I could do,” he says. “I wanted Dakar, of course, but I’m used to doing 15 events per season, so just that rally and a couple of warm-up events wasn’t really enough.

“Then we thought of rallycross, and it suits me well. The racing is intense and the cars are fantastic. I also love the difference between the two sports; Dakar is the longest race you can do, and a rallycross heat is about the shortest.” Loeb mentions Dakar a lot – perhaps because it remains one of precious few boxes he hasn’t ticked in his remarkable career. He led on his debut in the event this year, but a heavy crash (another rare occurrence) ultimately shoved him down the finishing order, well behind the winner – Peugeot team-mate Stephane Peterhansel. 10 “It was good to start,” he explains, “and I certainly wasn’t expecting to have been leading after the first week. But then we had our problems. I learned so much in only a few days, so I know we can be better prepared in 2017.” Loeb is currently in the midst of the World Rallycross season, and he kicked off the campaign by reaching the final in the curtain-raiser in Portugal. Contact with another car and transmission problems kept him from winning, though. • The future of Peugeot Sport with boss Bruno Famin