Daniel Elena confirmed today via a video he posted on his social media that he will never take part in a WRC event in the future as he will retire from the World Rally Championship.
The Monegasque co-driver has become nine times Co-Driver World Rally Champion in his WRC career and he was navigating Sebastien Loeb for years.
The pair is the most successful crew in the history of WRC as they clinched nine titles in a row (2004-2012) with one manufacturer, Citroen.
However, they returned to WRC for seasons 2019-2020 and they joined Hyundai Motorsport with a partial programme as they shared the third car of the team with Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio.
Moreover, it is tipped that Loeb will return next season with M-Sport Ford for unknown number of events, but he will have a new co-driver alongside him as Elena decided to retire.
In fact Loeb completed two tests with the hybrid Puma of M-Sport Ford in Spain and in France earlier this month and he did not have Elena as his navigator in these tests.
Finally, both of them had competed in Dakar Rally five times so far and their best result was the second position overall in 2017 when they were running for Peugeot DKR.
"I’m turning the page", Elena said.
"I want to concentrate on other things.
"I’m going to be 50 next year and I can’t really focus on two things at once.
"Anais will be the first to tell you that.
"For me, the motivation to prepare for a race or otherwise?
"Well, it’s gone and that’s coming from a big passionate guy.
"We talked about it all, we are big boys and the friendship remains intact.
"We’ve been friends in and out of the car".
Photo Credits: Red Bull Content Pool
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