Following their highly successful Pikes Peak collaboration, Peugeot and Sébastien Loeb will join forces once again for the 2016 Dakar Rally.

The French carmaker has announced that Loeb will drive one of its four 2008 DKR16 rally cars in the world’s toughest rally raid competition.

Peugeot has what it calls a “dream team” for the 2016 Dakar, with the lineup also including two-time WRC champion and Dakar 2010 winner Carlos Sainz, 11-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel and five-time bike winner Cyril Despres.

The nine-time World Rally Championship winner and Pikes Peak record-holder has joined Peugeot’s 2008 DKR lineup alongside Carlos Sainz for next month’s Rallye du Maroc (October 3-9), a the last rehearsal before the sport’s toughest challenge, the Dakar.

“The Dakar is completely different from the racing I’m doing at the moment. It will be very long, over two weeks, and you need to have the endurance to look after the driver and the car. It’s another approach to racing but I’ll discover that in January,” the 41-year-old Loeb said.

Loeb has already tested Peugeot’s Dakar challenger in Morocco earlier this year. In the Rallye du Maroc, Sainz will drive the latest Peugeot 2008 DKR16 whereas Loeb will drive a 2015-specification car.

“What struck me most of all is how the Dakar car was a completely new experience: in the WRC I have been used to going round obstacles but with this car you can just drive straight over them, and it takes some time to have the confidence to believe it!” Loeb said.

Sébastien Loeb is one of the very few racing drivers who has successfully competed in very different disciplines in recent years. Besides breaking most records in the WRC, the Frenchman has won the Pikes Peak hillclimb with Peugeot and currently ranks third in the 2015 World Touring Car Championship with Citroën.

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