In the small world of rallying, these off-road car races, it was a divorce that caused a stir. March 16, in a video posted on Facebook, the Monegasque Daniel Elena, historical co-pilot of Sébastien Loeb, announced that the French pilot had just called him a little earlier to put an immediate end to their association of twenty-three years.
Behind this brutal rupture, a question is asked: can we have been and still be? In this case, having been a brilliant co-driver on “traditional” rallies – the events of the WRC world championship – and just as much on rally-raids, these long-term races, the most emblematic of which is the Rallye Paris- Dakar.
As for the British team Prodrive, which, until mid-March, had bet on the Loeb-Elena duo in rally-raid, replied: it considered that Daniel Elena ” born [faisait] not the case “, was not “Not motivated enough”, did not have “Not enough experience”, ” but also [avait fait] too many navigation errors this year ” on the Paris-Dakar Rally, according to statements made by the Monegasque after the phone call from Sébastien Loeb. The two men had retired during the eighth stage of the 2021 rally-raid in Saudi Arabia.
On WRC rally events – on asphalt, or pebbles, in mud or on ice – the Loeb-Elena machine has long been indestructible. The duo achieved 79 successes between 2002 and 2018 in the WRC championship, and won nine world championship titles with the Citroën brand.
It was from 2016 that the pair also branched out into the rally-raid, with their first participation in the Dakar. But in the Peruvian, then Saudi dunes, the mechanics got stuck: two withdrawals and two podiums (second in 2017) in five participations, the duo is no longer untouchable.
“Two different jobs”
“A co-pilot is not necessarily a good navigator, they are two different jobs ”, notes Matthieu Baumel, who, before winning two Dakar alongside Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, trained ten years on the sandy roads of the Middle East. “In a WRC rally, the co-driver is only responsible for 15% of the result. On the other hand, in rally-raid, it is at least 50%, or even 99% on certain days. “
The WRC rally takes place over three or four days, with a succession of timed exercises, the “specials” (four to ten per day, 5 to 50 kilometers long), on a strictly identical course for all the competitors. The rally-raid, like the Dakar, is spread over two weeks, with an alternation of timed “specials” that can reach up to 500 kilometers per day and links, in accordance with the rules of the road. The navigator is responsible for the route there and can only find his way around using a digital map distributed a quarter of an hour before the stage.
If Daniel Elena “Has a brain that goes faster than everyone else”, as assured Stéphane Peterhansel, fourteen times victorious on the Paris-Dakar rally (including six on a motorcycle), the Monegasque had to learn to decipher the “Dakar language”. Abbreviations, drawings of crossroads that were not his.
“Getting lost is almost the daily life of a Dakar sailor,” explains Stéphane Peterhansel, fourteen times victorious in the race.
When in the rally, leaving the road is prohibited because it is synonymous with an accident, it is commonplace in the desert. “Getting lost is almost the daily life of a Dakar navigator, explains Stéphane Peterhansel. When a pilot attacks at maximum, he can gain five minutes at the end of the day. But a navigation error can quickly waste fifteen, twenty minutes. “
“In rally-raid, there is no such thing as a perfect day, confirms Matthieu Baumel. Where the crew makes the difference is in their ability to get back on track faster than the others. ” This year, on the Dakar, inaccuracies kept the Loeb-Elena couple away from the “check-points”, where the competitors must score under penalty of penalties.
Daniel Elena, free man, laughing and cheeky
Daniel Elena had often been on an ejection seat. As early as 1998, at the end of his first campaign with Sébastien Loeb, the patrons of the Alsatian pilot wanted to dismiss him. The following spring, Loeb shared the cockpit with a new co-driver for a race, but insisted on continuing with Elena.
For twenty-three years, the pilot will have ensured the rear of his teammate, who has become a friend, brother and neighbor. Unparalleled complicity on the circuit when “Most crews are linked by an employer-employee relationship”, details WRC driver Stéphane Lefebvre. In almost twenty years of cohabitation, the complementarity of the Peterhansel-Cottret duo has never gone beyond the dunes of the Dakar. “We got along well but we didn’t have the same lifestyles”, explains “Mr. Dakar”.
Free man, laughing and cheeky, Daniel Elena broke away from the traditional discretion reserved for those who occupy the seat on the right. “He needs to be in contact with the crowd”, observes co-driver Julien Ingrassia, seven-time world rally champion with Sébastien Ogier. Ripailleur, the Monegasque may have paid for his excesses with Prodrive. “His way of being, a little chubby, of smoking and drinking Ricard does not prevent him from being very competent”, remarks Stéphane Peterhansel. In 2022, Sébastien Loeb will start the Dakar with a new teammate.