It’s not just Sebastien Loeb: MINI driver Paulo Nobre is also set for a career change next year. The Brazilian is running for the presidency of his beloved Palmeiras Football Club in Sao Paulo, having previously held the vice president’s post.
And if he gets the number one job, it means that he won’t have time for any rallying for a couple of years - although he’s promised to be back.
“I’ve put myself up for being president before, but this time I’m hoping I might get it,” he explained. “I feel quite optimistic, because football is my big passion. If I do get the job, it will be impossible to do any rallying as you have to be in the club every day and at all the matches. Look at it this way: even when I was vice president, people were complaining that I was going away from time to time to drive on some rallies. So you can imagine what it would be like if I were to become president!”
Palmeiras is the third biggest football club in Brazil, with around 16 million fans: more than three times the population of Finland. The president is elected for a two-year term, and can only be re-elected once.
“I think I would only do it for two years, and then I would definitely come back to rallying,” said Nobre. “And the only way I could do it for longer than four years would be by changing the constitution! Actually, I would technically be able to do that as president, but I don’t think that it would be very fair...”
Nobre, who drives for WRC Team MINI Portugal, is 28th overall starting day two of Rallye de France Alsace.