Le Mans winner Lotterer aims at rallying after “dream” test and “mind-blowing” passenger ride

Three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Andre Lotterer says he would like to explore opportunities in rallying in the future after realising the dream of driving a World Rally Championship car. 

The sportscar ace and former Formula E driver has been a life-long admirer of rallying, having grown up around the discipline thanks to his father running a rally team in Belgium.

Last week, the 43-year-old was offered a WRC experience courtesy of reigning world champion and close friend Thierry Neuville.

Neuville’s LifeLive Motorsport team put on a special event in France where Lotterer was among the guests invited to sample rally machinery on a closed off four-kilometer asphalt stage.

Lotterer drove Neuville’s historic BMW M3 rally car followed by an outing in a factory-spec WRC Citroen DS3 that Neuville campaigned during 2012. 

“I made sure I had time [in my schedule] because it has always been a dream of mine to try a WRC car,” said Lotterer.

“It [the Citroen] was cool and you quickly feel at home. I loved the sequential gearbox, and it is incredible how well developed the suspension is in those cars – and that car was from 2012. 

“Immediately you feel how agile the car is and you can always adapt and play with the car in a very controlled way, so it gives you a lot of confidence from the start. The car is really made for this situation and the grip window is quite wide and you can always do something. We didn’t look at performance and whether I was close to the limit or not, but to me it felt like I was close to the limit. But driving the car with notes being at the limit is another skill set that is incredible.”

Lotterer, who will join Hyundai’s voyage into the World Endurance Championship, under the Genesis umbrella next year, then jumped in a 2021 WRC Hyundai i20 Coupe as passenger alongside Neuville. 

“It is crazy and mind-blowing. I was like, ‘Oh my god, these guys are really crazy’. It is very impressive how they [the drivers] control in such tight spaces, and the speeds. When you don’t know the road, you are thinking ‘no way is this going to work’, and the car just does it – and he [Thierry] does it in a calm and precise manner. It is very impressive,” Lotterer added.

“I trust him [Thierry] but it is hard to believe that we are going to go through that corner at that speed, and I’m someone who is used to high speed. I’m used to seeing this happen in a certain logical way, but it shocked me even more.”

This isn’t the only rally outing Lotterer has experienced this year, having taken part in the Legend Boucles à Bastogne rally in Belgium in February, where he drove a historic Porsche 911 SC. Neuville also contested the event driving the M3 Lotterer was in last week. 

While Lotterer is focused on his sportscar commitments with Genesis and next week’s Le Mans 24 Hours, when he will pilot an IDEC Sport LMP2 prototype, he is keen to compete in more rally events and explore the possibility of a future Dakar Rally programme.

Hyundai i20 Coupe

Photo by: Andre Lotterer

“I would definitely like to do more – obviously not to the detriment to my main priorities and new challenges,” he added. 

“It would be something I would like to do more in the future, not at a WRC level as I’m not eligible for that and the guys are on a [different] level, but there are some cool rallies that can be done, like the Tour de Corse Historique and the East African Safari. I have seen some cool things that people can do there. 

“I also fell in love with the Dakar Rally when I was invited to the last event by Prince Khalid from Saudi Arabia and they took me in the helicopter to follow the stages. That is something I’d like to do in the long term if possible on a professional level. 

“I’d like to get out of my comfort zone. It [Dakar] is something you go and watch and you say yes or no, and it was a clear yes from me. I like the endurance aspect and the whole adventure, I was fascinated by it.”