How M-Sport's faith in Loubet led to a WRC reprieve after a dismal 2021

It's fair to say 2021 was a year to forget for Pierre-Louis Loubet. A maiden full World Rally Championship season offered hope but soon turned into a nightmare that ended in hospital, after being hit by a car in a road traffic accident. Now handed a lifeline by M-Sport, the Frenchman is desperate to rebuild his career

Tom Howard Apr 20, 2022, 2:48 PM

Upd: Apr 21, 2022, 6:14 PM

Time, as they say, is a great healer. This certainly applies to World Rally Championship driver Pierre-Louis Loubet, who will resume a fledgling top-flight rally career at Rally Croatia this weekend - an opportunity he thought wouldn’t be possible.

Six months ago had painted a very different landscape for the 2019 WRC2 champion Loubet. The 2021 season started with high hopes and anticipation ahead of his maiden full season in the WRC, driving a 2C Competition-run Hyundai i20. But what unfolded was a series of struggles and misery. A string of accidents and technical issues from an under-developed car masked glimpses of speed.

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.