Dacia World Rally-Raid drivers Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah have swapped navigators for the remainder of the 2025 season, as well as the 2026 Dakar Rally.
Fabian Lurquin has sat with Loeb ever since his split with long-term World Rally Championship co-driver Daniel Elena, but partnered Al-Attiayh for the Baja España Aragón in July and has now made a more permanent switch.
Édouard Boulanger teamed up with Al-Attiyah in 2024 (as a replacement for Mathieu Baumel) after several years alongside Stéphane Peterhansel, but will now join Loeb in his Dacia Sandrider for next week’s Rally-Raid Portugal (September 22-28) and Rallye du Moroc (October 10-17) before January’s Dakar.
Explaining the decision, Dacia Sandriders team principal Tiphanie Isnard said: “In rally-raid, our strength as a team lies in creating the best possible conditions for our crews to perform at their highest level. The bond between driver and navigator is crucial, and sometimes evolving the pairings allows new synergies to emerge.
“We believe these new collaborations will bring greater stability, renewed confidence, and the determination needed to push even further together.”
Lurquin will vacate Loeb's Sandrider and hop in Al-Attiyah's, with Boulanger making the reverse move
Al-Attiyah, who currently leads the championship, added: “After a really good collaboration on Baja Aragón, I’m happy to continue the adventure with Fabian as my new navigator. Rally-Raid Portugal is a great event, and we are really looking forward to it.
“The target is always very clear: to keep the lead in the championship by scoring good points and to have a great event.”
Loeb said he’s “really looking forward to starting this new chapter with Édouard”.
He continued: “We’ve already done some testing together in Morocco and everything went very well, so I’m confident our collaboration will be a good one. I can’t wait to get back to the racing feeling and to meet the Portuguese and Spanish fans, who are always so passionate and create an incredible atmosphere on every stage.”
Cristina Gutiérrez completes Dacia’s lineup next week alongside her regular co-driver Pablo Moreno.
They’ll face competition from Toyota’s regular drivers as well as Carlos Sainz, who makes his first start for Ford (which is rotating drivers it uses at events) since the Dakar.
