Sébastien Loeb’s DTM debut was about to happen in 2012

The last weekend was one of premieres for Sébastien Loeb. He competed for the first time in the DTM and in the circuit of the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. However, the French driver’s adventure in the competitive German championship was about to begin in 2012.
Speaking to Motorsport-Total.com over the weekend in Portimão, Loeb revealed that he was very close to being part of the DTM peloton when he ended his full-time WRC career at the end of 2012.
“I was in discussions with a manufacturer to enter the championship. It was almost ten years ago, when I was finishing my WRC career. In the end we decided to do something else”, said the French driver, then added that “I have been in talks with BMW and I think we were very close [de chegar a acordo]but then I decided to continue in the WRC and we stopped the talks”.
In 2013, Loeb competed in five rallies – Monte Carlo, Sweden, Argentina, Germany and France – in addition to teaming up with Álvaro Parente in the FIA ​​GT in one of the McLaren MP4-12Cs of his own structure, Sébastien Loeb Racing. He also competed in the Porsche Supercup and announced that year that he would participate, from 2014, in the WTCC for the factory team of Citroën.
Sébastien Loeb made his DTM debut in Portimão, replacing Nick Cassidy, who had to race in Formula E in Monaco, for AlphaTauri AF Corse, finishing 16th in Race 1 and 18th in Race 2.