Pierre-Louis Loubet

Pierre-Louis Loubet

Loubet at the 2023 Central European Rally
Personal information
Nationality	French
Born	(1997-02-18) 18 February 1997 Bastia, France
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2015–present
Co-driver	Florian Haut-Labourdette Vincent Landais
Rallies	54
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	0
Stage wins	3
Total points	45
First rally	2015 Rally de Portugal
Last updated on: 15 Nov 2022.

Pierre-Louis Loubet (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ.lwi lu.bɛ]; born 18 February 1997) is a French rally driver. He is the 2019 World Rally Championship 2 Champion. He is the son of the 1989 European Rally Champion Yves Loubet.

Career

Early career

Loubet started karting at 7 years old at the Figari circuit, close to his Porto-Vecchio family residence. After a year of Formula Renault in 2014, he switches to rallying after obtaining his drivers license.

Beginnings in rallying (2015)

Loubet made his entry into world rallying in the JWRC category in Portugal, where he would finish 2nd in his category with Victor Belotto as a co-driver. After retirements in Finland and Poland, he started the 2015 Tour de Corse with new co-driver Vincent Landais, but would also retire from the rally. He would finish the year with a 5th place in Catalunya and 4th in Wales. He would finish the year 6th overall in the 2015 Junior World Rally Championship.

Initial WRC2 Campaign (2016)

Pierre-Louis started the 2016 WRC-2 campaign on a Peugeot 207 S2000 in Portugal with a retirement, before switching to a Citroën DS3 R5 run by PH Sport. He would then go on to score several points finishes in Sardinia, Poland and Corsica in WRC2, before scoring a podium in Catalunya in the RC2 category.

M-Sport (2017)

Starting the year with PH Sport in Sweden, he retired due to an engine failure and duly switched to M-Sport and the Ford Fiesta R5, alongside Eric Camilli and Teemu Suninen before Corsica. This would be marked as a consistent year with many points finishes (4th in Catalunya being the best result), but with no podiums.

Hyundai / BRC Racing Team (2018)

Hoping to take a step up in 2018, Loubet switched to the new Hyundai i20 R5, driving for BRC Racing Team. He started the year with a limited FIA ERC campaign in the Azores and Canary Islands, both of which were impacted by mechanical and electronical failures, but with a decent pace to show for it. After more issues in Corsica, he would finish a season-best 4th in Portugal, with retirements being the theme of the season in Italy, Germany and Wales.

First title (2019)

Loubet started 2019 as he had done in 2018 with a two-event European Rally Championship campaign, again in the Azores and Canary Islands. He would have to retire before the final stage with an alternator belt failure, despite being on the podium. In the Canary Islands, a false start penalty would demote him from 3rd to 5th place, but the pace shown in the Skoda was promising. He arrived to Corsica hoping to take a good result at his rally, but small issues would hinder his pace, and he would finish 10th in class. Starting with Portugal however, he went on a consistent and quick pace to win Portugal and Sardinia. He would then go on to finish 4th in Finland. After the summer break, he battled it out with Petter Solberg at Wales Rally GB, finishing 2nd and taking the championship lead. He would then finish 4th in Catalunya, narrowly missing out on clinching the title. The decision had been made to enter Rally Australia for a final round showdown against Benito Guerra, however, following the widespread bushfires in New South Wales, the rally would be cancelled, crowning Loubet as champion with a 3-point advantage over Kajetan Kajetanowicz.

Rally results

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points
2015	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Citroën DS3 R3T Max	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR 28	ITA	POL Ret	FIN Ret	GER	AUS	FRA Ret	ESP 32	GBR 34		NC	0
2016	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Peugeot 207 S2000	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR Ret										NC	0
		Citroën DS3 R5						ITA 17	POL 18	FIN Ret	GER 12	CHN C	FRA 25	ESP 13	GBR 41	AUS
2017	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Citroën DS3 R5	MON	SWE Ret	MEX												NC	0
		Ford Fiesta R5				FRA 15	ARG	POR 25	ITA 19	POL 21	FIN 31	GER 14	ESP 11	GBR 20	AUS
2018	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i20 R5	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA 23	ARG	POR 11	ITA Ret	FIN 15	GER Ret	TUR	GBR Ret	ESP 18	AUS		NC	0
2019	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA 44	ARG	CHL	POR 9	ITA 11	FIN 14	GER	TUR				21st	2
		Škoda Fabia R5 Evo												GBR 12	ESP 17	AUS C
2020	Hyundai 2C Competition	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	MON	SWE	MEX	EST Ret	TUR Ret	ITA 7	MNZ								19th	6
2021	Hyundai 2C Competition	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	MON 16	ARC 39	CRO 29	POR Ret	ITA Ret	KEN WD	EST 7	BEL 68	GRE Ret	FIN	ESP WD	MNZ			18th	6
2022	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Puma Rally1	MON	SWE	CRO 47	POR 7	ITA 4	KEN	EST Ret	FIN Ret	BEL	GRE 4	NZL	ESP 10	JPN		13th	31
2023	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Puma Rally1	MON Ret	SWE 6	MEX 27	CRO 7	POR 32	ITA Ret	KEN 7	EST 6	FIN 45	GRE Ret	CHL Ret	EUR 10	JPN		12th	29

* Season still in progress.

WRC-2 results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points
2016	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Peugeot 207 S2000	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR Ret										10th	36
		Citroën DS3 R5						ITA 6	POL 6	FIN Ret	GER 5	CHN C	FRA 5	ESP	GBR	AUS
2017	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Citroën DS3 R5	MON	SWE Ret	MEX												10th	39
		Ford Fiesta R5				FRA 6	ARG	POR 10	ITA 5	POL	FIN 7	GER 5	ESP	GBR 8	AUS
2018	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Hyundai i20 R5	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA 6	ARG	POR 4	ITA Ret	FIN 5	GER Ret	TUR	GBR Ret	ESP 7	AUS		11th	36
2019	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA 10	ARG	CHL	POR 1	ITA 1	FIN 4	GER	TUR				1st	91
		Škoda Fabia R5 Evo												GBR 2	ESP 5	AUS C

External links

• Pierre-Louis Loubet's e-wrc profile