Sébastien Loeb returns to World Rallycross with an electric Delta

He is unstoppable! A few months after finishing second in the 2023 Dakar and won the Azores Rally, Sébastien Loeb announced its new sporting challenge: the World Championship of rallycross (World RX) with Guerlain Chicherit. The Savoyard pilot-entrepreneur convinced the nine-time world champion WRC to drive a Delta Evo-e RX retrofitted to electric.

🇬🇧 @GChicherit announces the emergence of Special ONE Racing, a new car racing team, as part of which he will be entering two Delta EVO.e RXs for himself and @SebastienLoeb in the @FIAWorldRX.#motorsports #worldrx #rallycross #sébastienloeb pic.twitter.com/OPhzTvDImd

— Special ONE (@sp1racing) April 17, 2023

Sébastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit will form a tandem within the new Special ONE Racing team, the sporting branch of Special ONE, an entity responsible for manufacturing and distributing clean vehicles like the Delta Evo-e, based on Lancia Delta gasoline. The sports branch, Special ONE Racing, will promote the brand's commercial productions by fielding their racing versions in major international sporting events.

Sébastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit in their new colors.

“I am from the generation which was lulled by the victories of the Lancia Delta in rally, commented Sébastien Loeb. So obviously, I have a weakness for this car. But when Guerlain first talked to me about entering one in rallycross… I thought he was crazy! And then I tested the car in December 2022 in Charade (Puy de Dome) and I was immediately won over by its dynamic qualities. I believe a lot in this project and I can't wait to defend it on tracks around the world. »

As Guerlain Chicherit explains, the ambitions are high for this new project. “It's a dream for me to field two cars from my own brand in World RX, one of which is entrusted to a legend of the sport. All the conditions are there to make Special ONE Racing a leading team. This season we will have the opportunity to make history by becoming the first to win a retrofitted car in a world championship race. »

Like the other World RX cars, the Delta Evo-e RX is equipped with two engines of 250 kW each (or 680 hp in total).

Sébastien Loeb is no stranger to the world of Rallycross. Between 2016 and 2018, he defended the interests of Peugeot Sport with the 208, scoring a victory in Mettet (Belgium) and Riga (Latvia), and finishing twice at the foot of the podium at the end of the season (2017, 2018) among the specialists in the discipline.

ALSO READ > World RX – Promising debut for the amazing retrofitted Lancia Delta

As for Guerlain Chicherit, he showed promising potential during the first outing of the electric Delta at the Nürburgring at the end of the 2022 season, then under the GCK Motorsport entity (semi-final). The first World RX race in 2023 is scheduled for Montalegre (Portugal), June 3 and 4, 2023. Nine meetings are set until an unprecedented final in Hong Kong in November.

Special One Racing will present its car and drivers on Sunday May 21 during the Charade Super Show, an event open to families and enthusiasts on the great Clermont circuit. 

Find it in AUTO issue 2409hebdo, on sale Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands, our report on the tests of Sébastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit in World Rallycross and an exclusive interview with Sébastien Loeb.