Loubet will be first of foreign drivers to arrive for Safari
France’s Pierre-Louis Loubet and co-driver Belgium’s Nicolas Gilsoul power their Ford
Puma Rally1 Hybrid near Olbia during the WRC Rally of Sardegna on June 2. Loubet will race for Ford at next week’s WRC Safari Rally and is expected in Nairobi tomorrow.
What you need to know:
- M-Sport team principal Richard Millener echoed those thoughts, telling the official WRC website: “Sardinia was a tough one for the whole team – everybody in the team is trying so hard right now, but we’re just not getting any luck. We’ll bounce back next week, this championship’s absolutely not over and we’re not about to give up.”
Ford will rely on the experience of the 2019 world champion Ott Tanak but also youngster Pierre-Louis Loubet.
The talented young newcomer will be determined to make amends in the second half of the season after mixed results in the first.
Loubet is amongst top drivers expected to arrive for the Safari Rally from Friday evening.
Loubet will head to Naivasha confident in the knowledge his best results have come on rough gravel rallies, with his fourth placings coming in Greece and Italy last year.
The Corsican star checked into his first full season at rallying’s highest level chasing a maiden podium, having twice finished fourth aboard a Puma Rally1 Hybrid in 2022, and is looking forward to delivering on that potential in the coming events.
Loubet had been sitting third overall before the previous round in Italy but plummeted down the order after incurring time penalties when he struggled to engage any gears prior to SS5.
Damaged steering caused him to go off the road later in the opening day.
“It has been tough,” Loubet told wrc.com. “After Sardinia, it was time for me to make a refocus and a reset to get ready for Kenya. It’s exciting to go to the Safari Rally for the first time. It’s fair to say the results we had so far were not what we were hoping for – in Sardinia things were working really nicely on the first day even in some tough conditions.
“We will focus on the next one.”
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener echoed those thoughts, telling the official WRC website: “Sardinia was a tough one for the whole team – everybody in the team is trying so hard right now, but we’re just not getting any luck. We’ll bounce back next week, this championship’s absolutely not over and we’re not about to give up.”
Jourdan Serderidis, a Belgian-Greek rally driver is the other driver in the Ford line-up.
He came 10th at the 2018 Rally Australia, then took a three-year break, returning for the 2021 Acropolis Rally.
He finished seventh in the 2022 Safari Rally. He drives a Ford Puma Rally1. He won the WRC Trophy Champion title in 2017.
He wants to do the Safari and score a good position before he finally retires after his home event -- WRC Greece.
Serderidis has driven a Ford Puma Rally1 on six WRC events since the new hybrid Rally1 regulations were introduced, with a best finish of seventh overall at last year’s Safari Rally Kenya.
The 59-year-old has already started two events this season – Monte Carlo and México and Sardinia.
He’s driven a variety of cars from the Citroën DS3 WRC to the last generation Ford Fiesta WRC and several R5/Rally2 machines.
Explaining his decision to retire from the WRC, Serderidis told DirtFish: “That’s what I am doing in my life, to improve my own personal performance, so it doesn’t change for a rally or for a business.
“OK, the most important (thing) is the pleasure, the fun. I still have it, but OK at one moment we have to think about stopping as well.”
The Safari Rally will run from June 22 to 25 in Nairobi and Naivasha.
