Nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and former FIA World Endurance Champion Romain Dumas are both set to make their 24H SERIES powered by Hankook debuts at the upcoming Hankook 12H MUGELLO, doing so with the Orchid Racing Team. 

The WRC’s GOAT and the two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner have both been registered to drive Orchid Racing Teams’ Porsche 992 GT3 Cup at the 10th edition of the Hankook 12H MUGELLO as the Swiss team begins its first full European campaign with CREVENTIC in 2024. 

As the team’s assistant director Maëva Cottin explains, “we are so proud and happy to welcome two of the most talented and experienced drivers in the world – Romain Dumas and Sébastien Loeb – to join our team as official drivers for this race. We can't wait to share this experience with them!”

Dumas and Loeb are set to drive the #963 Porsche, which will boast an all-black livery for Mugello, alongside Loic Villiger, Laurent Misbach, and Alexandre Mottet in Mugello.

After securing nine World Rally Championship crowns on the bounce with Citroën, Sébastien  Loeb has since returned for part-time programs with Citroën, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford, stunning the paddock and his rivals with event wins in ’13, 18 and ’22. Since calling time on his WRC career, Loeb has contested the fearsome Dakar Rally every year, bar one, since 2016, finishing five of them on the overall podium. After a short-lived but successful run in the all-electric Extreme E in 2021 and 2022 with seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton’s ‘Team X44’ team (which included the overall title in 2022), Loeb has since transitioned to the World Rally-Raid Championship, most recently winning the Andalucia Rally in 2022. 

Away from the rally stages, Loeb memorably competed in the FIA World Touring Car Championship in 2014 and 2015, winning six races and twice finishing 3rd in the overall standings before turning his attention to the World Rallycross Championship from 2016 to 2018 with Peugeot, adding another two wins to his career tally. These accomplishments mean Sébastien  Loeb the only driver in history to win across four different FIA-accredited disciplines. 

Tellingly, the 10th edition of the Hankook 12H MUGELLO will also make Sébastien Loeb first race in a Porsche Cup car since Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup run in 2015, his first on-track race in a Porsche full-stop since a one-off entry in the French GT4 Cup in 2019, and his first GT outing since competing in the DTM’s 2022 season opener aboard an Alpha Tauri Ferrari. 

By contrast, Romain Dumas comes into his 24H SERIES debut with an enormous amount of track experience with Porsche. A factory driver for the German brand since 2004, Dumas made the first of – to-date – 23 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans entries in 2001, picking up overall wins with Audi and Porsche in 2010 and 2016 respectively, and an additional class win in 2013 (Porsche). The 2016 win in particular proved crucial to sealing that year’s overall FIA World Endurance Championship aboard the Porsche 919 Hybrid, an LMP1 for which he was among the chief development drivers.

Away from Le Mans, Dumas is a four-time overall winner of the Nürburgring 24 Hours (from 2007 to 2009, and again in 2011, placing him just one win shy of equaling the overall record), a two-time winner of the Spa 24 Hours (in 2003 and 2010), and an overall podium finisher at the Daytona 24 Hours (this is alongside two further class podiums at the speedway). He was also crowned American Le Mans Series champion in 2007 after a dominant campaign with Penske Racing in 2007. 

Off-track meanwhile, Romain Dumas has memorably competed with an eponymous entry in both FIA R-GT Cup – which he won overall in 2017 – and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, of which he is a four-time overall winner. His 7m 57.148s ‘Race to the Clouds’ aboard a Volkswagen I.D R in 2018 remains the fastest to-date on the event. 

Loeb and Dumas are the latest in a spree of high-profile PRO drivers to make their 24H SERIES’ debuts recently. MotoGP GOAT Valentino Rossi memorably made his series debut with Team WRT at the 2023 Hankook 24H DUBAI, the first event for Rossi as an official BMW M Motorsport factory driver. Prior to that, six-time FIA World Rallycross champion Johan Kristofferson debuted in the 24H SERIES, also at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO, in 2021, and came close to taking class victory with HRT Performance. Similarly, three-time European Rallycross champion Andreas Bakkerud, former Formula 1 driver Christian Klien, and MotoGP race winner Miguel Oliveira each made their maiden 24H SERIES starts at Spa-Francorchamps in 2022, Spa-Francorchamps in 2023, and Barcelona in 2021 respectively.