Recently I wrote a deliberately arch piece over on Instagram about Daniel Elena and his extraordinary comments in the wake of his split with long-time collaborator Sébastien Loeb. Between them the pair won the World Rally Championship nine times during a 23-year spell as driver and co-driver. More recently they’ve been competing in the WRC on a part-time basis with Hyundai, while also tackling the Dakar Rally five times since 2016.
The astonishingly successful Loeb-Elena partnership came to an end this month when the former informed the latter he’d be working with a different navigator from now on. According to Elena it wasn’t Loeb’s decision, but that of Prodrive, the team with whom the duo contested this year’s Dakar Rally. Elena, reckoned Prodrive, was holding Loeb back and making too many navigational errors.
It would be fair to say Daniel Elena wasn’t of the same opinion. In an interview with French newspaper L’Équipe, the Monégasque points towards the hatful of Dakar stages he and Loeb have won together over the years. He says he makes navigational errors no more frequently than other co-drivers. And of course he should back himself – who wouldn’t do the same in the circumstances?
