Pierre-Louis Loubet at the Hivernal du Dévoluy with Nicolas Gilsoul

While Hyundai Motorsport and Toyota Gazoo Racing ont déjà dévoilé leurs équipages pour 2023, M-Sport n’a encore rien annoncé. La liste des pilotes disponibles est longue. Parmi eux, Pierre-Louis Loubet se montre discret sur son avenir, mais cela ne l’empêche pas de l’envisager avec beaucoup de sérieux. A la recherche d’un navigateur depuis que Vincent Landais a rejoint l’habitacle de la Yaris de Sébastien Ogier, Corsica will make his debut with Nicolas Gilsoul. The two men are on the entry list for the 7th National Winter of Dévoluy which will take place on Saturday December 10 and Sunday December 11 over 127,32 km timed and 10 special stages to the North-East of Gap. Since his surprise separation from Thierry Neuville just before Monte-Carlo 2021, the experienced co-driver (114 world rallies, 13 victories) competed in the 2022 Belgian championship with Gino Bux. Together they were in Ypres this year (13^e), the only round of WRC of Gilsoul from Monza 2020.

Here with Nikolay Gryazin, Nicolas Gilsoul (right) will sail Pierre-Louis Loubet. The Belgian has already raced with the French Stéphane Lefebvre, Bryan Bouffier or Jean-Matthieu Leandri (Photo Bastien Roux / DPPI)

The Frenchman and the Belgian will get to know each other inside a Ford Fiesta Rally2. Loubet's last race in a Fiesta R5 dates back to Wales 2017 when he was already playing for M-Sport. With the snow that recently fell around the mild capital, the 2 WRC2019 world champion risks finding typical Monte-Carlo conditions even if victory will undoubtedly not be the major objective. His ambition will above all be to learn to work with his new partner. Among the other contenders, there is also Nikolay Gryazin who won last year and will start with the Skoda RS Rally2. Winner in 2019 and 2018, Grégoire Munster (Hyundai i20 Rally2) will have the advantage of knowledge of the terrain. This trio was not far from being accompanied by Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg. The latter obviously had to cancel his visit due to an unavailable car.