What indicates that record rally world champion Sebastien Loeb will contest more than one DTM weekend in 2022 and why it could already be so far in Portimao
There’s a sensation in the air in the DTM: because at the AF-Corse team, which is preparing for the DTM season with the new regular drivers Felipe Fraga and Nick Cassidy at a private GT test today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday) at Spa-Francorchamps, rally record world champion Sebastien Loeb turned up, according to the colleagues of ‘Endurance-Info.com’.
In addition to the two Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo cars in Red Bull and AlphaTauri livery, the team also brought along an all-white car, which was reportedly only used on Tuesday.
Who has been a Red Bull sportsman for many years, actually testing for the team in Belgium. Nevertheless, when asked, Red Bull did not want to comment – i.e. deny – the matter. So what could be the background of the test?
DTM regular Cassidy threatened with three overruns
It is anything but out of the question that the 48-year-old is actually gaining experience in the racing car in preparation for the DTM season opener in Portimao at the end of April! After all, regular driver Nick Cassidy will be absent from the first weekend of the season because he will start for the Envision team in Monte Carlo due to the overlap with the Formula E calendar. And AF Corse has not yet announced a replacement for this.
The DTM season opener will not be the only weekend on which the New Zealander is prevented. The fourth weekend of the season at the Norisring from 1 to 3 July will see Formula E racing in Vancouver.
There’s also the WEC weekend at Fuji: because Cassidy is also part of the AF-Corse driver line-up in the World Endurance Championship, which has an overlap with the DTM weekend at Spa-Francorchamps in September.
Loeb’s calendar would allow DTM starts
But would Loeb, who won the last of his nine World Rally Championship titles in 2012, even have capacity free to contest three DTM weekends? The Frenchman, who won the Rally Monte Carlo in January in his WRC guest start in the Ford in a complete surprise, has two fixed programmes this year: The Rally Raid Series, in which he drives for Prodrive, and the Extreme E Series, in which he competes for Lewis Hamilton’s racing team.
While only the rounds in Andalusia and in Morocco are still to be held in the desert rallies, which do not overlap with the corresponding DTM races, there is an overlap between the DTM in Spa and the Extreme-E Series in Chile on 11 September. However, it cannot be ruled out that an arrangement could be found for this as well.
It wouldn’t be the first start for AF Corse in the Red Bull livery
Despite his age, Loeb would have what it takes to surprise on a DTM start, as he proved not only with his WRC success against the rally elite and Race of Champions victory earlier this year. The Alsatian, who was even a candidate as Toro Rosso’s replacement for Sebastien Bourdais in 2009 after strong Formula 1 tests, has also driven numerous circuit races in his career.
So he celebrated numerous victories in the WTCC for Citroen and contested numerous GT3 events not only with his own racing team. In 2011, the busy rally star even competed in the French GT Championship at Le Castellet with a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 from AF Corse painted in Red Bull colours. That could happen again now.
By the way, Loeb has never competed in the DTM so far. However, Loeb’s long-term rival Sebastien Ogier proved in 2018 at his guest start on the Red Bull Ring that rally drivers can also keep up in the traditional series. The Frenchman showed great potential in what was then a Mercedes Class 1 car.
