Sébastien Loeb has told DirtFish it was geography and curiosity which prompted his decision to test the Project Rally One 2027 Rally1 car earlier this week.
The nine-time world champion drove the asphalt-specification car in the Vosges region on Friday.
Loeb said: “I’m spending some time in the Vosges and it’s the place where they test the Rally1. It was just an opportunity because I know [Lionel] Hansen from the previous rally we did with the Porsche GT3.
“He was not far from my house and it’s always nice to discover a new car – I wanted to know a bit how is the new WRC (Rally1) and that was the opportunity to test it.
“I did a few runs with the car. It was going quite well, for sure. It’s not the [same] power of the [2017] Fiesta [WRC] I drove in the Rallye des Vosges a few months ago, but the feeling was quite OK.”
Loeb, who remains under contract with Dacia, was quick to quell any possible growing talk of this being any more than a test. Answering the obvious question: “You don’t need to expect to see me in Monte Carlo.”
