Le Mans winner makes double switch from race to rally and tarmac to desert sands
*Christophe Bouchut, 24hr Grand Master winner of Le Mans, Daytona, Nürburgring, Spa and Dubai enters Peking to Paris Motor Challenge 2025
*Royal partnership with P2P and Dakar navigator Prince Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón adds strength and rally experience
*Bouchut retains links with winning Peugeot marque by driving famous Safari Rally winning 504 Coupe of rally legend Jean Pierre Nicolas
After a glittering 43-year career producing 127 wins and six Grand Master 24 hr titles by winning Le Mans, Daytona, Spa x2, the Nürburgring, and Dubai – all on tarmac, Frenchman Christophe Bouchut will switch to the sandy tracks of the Gobi Desert.
Instead of 24 hours, the 1993 Le Mans winner for Peugeot has accepted the 37-day endurance challenge of trying to win the gruelling adventure competition that is the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge 2025. Competing against 60 other top international rally crews traversing the world’s largest landmass, the dramatic switch will be eased a little by the support of Christophe’s navigator and friend the Spanish Prince, Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, the 7th Duke of Galliera. His time as a navigator on previous P2P and Dakar events when he sat with top drivers, including winning the Baja de España in a truck, will add strength and experience to the pairing.
Alfonso agreed that perhaps he was a ‘Royal Racing Nut’ when charged with the description, having been in and around racing all his life. He was a fine driver himself having finished 10th overall on his 1994 Le Mans debut in a Ferrari 348 GC LM. Alfonso also runs Racing Engineering a race and high-tech company that produces racing simulators as much as it prepares cars – for example, Buggies for Dakar.
The event is often described as ‘To Drive the Impossible’ and one of the ‘World’s last true Motoring Adventures', such is the life changing experience that Christophe will encounter for the first time.
Christophe commented on the switch; “OK, we will have to adjust, of course, I have to discover many aspects of the race as the ground will be totally new for me, but I have some experience of driving a car! This race is so special, it's so long, and then there are so many possibilities that can happen, it will be really difficult, but when you look at the result of last year, one of the oldest cars won the rally, so that gives you a clear message, you don't need the faster car to win the race. You must take care of your car and escape all the trouble you can on the way. If I have to go fast, I know how to do it. If I have to drive slow, I can do it as well!”
Alfonso added; “Last year was more of a learning experience for me on P2P. Anyone who does the Peking to Paris, even if you've done it 10 times, you're always learning. But having seen what was necessary, we thought this original rally Peugeot 504 Coupe would be the proper one to go with, and having Christophe, being a Peugeot driver and Le Mans winner with Peugeot I thought, yeah, he was the right driver to try and go do the race. I just navigate, I let him do the driving.”
This will be the 9th running of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, it will run mostly in the wheel tracks of the original 1907 rally under the shadow of the first ever winner, Prince Scipione Borghese of Italy. Although the event was devised in France by Parisian newspaper Le Matin, challenging pioneer motorists to prove their new machines could actually last for a long distance, a French driver has never won. Christophe Bouchut wants to put that right.
Alfonso and Christophe have been close friends for many years and share their joint passion for motorsport, in fact they have raced together a few times sharing a Porsche 911 GT2 as far back as 1996 and 97. Now they will be sharing the famous Peugeot 504 Coupe which will become their ‘Ship of the Desert’ and has winning pedigree by taking victory on the toughest rally in the WRC, The East African Safari in 1978. The works Peugeot was piloted by French rally legend Jean-Pierre Nicolas and co-driven by Jean-Claude Lefebvre, winning the gruelling Kenyan event by 40 mins from their nearest rivals. By competing in the Peugeot, Christophe Bouchut will continue his winning links with the marque that brought him success at Le Mans, and the French Peugeot 905 Spyder Championship.
Christophe; “It's an old car, so different to a sports racing car and my first time in a rally car. I was surprised how easy it is to drive, but also understood why this car had so many great stories in the past. I think in this kind of race, the car must be easy because you have to change direction and change gears at the same time as well. You need good vision, a good position inside. I think this car has all those qualities to make for a good rally result.
Alfonso added; “This was the same car in which Jean-Pierre Nicolas won the Safari Rally with the car, it has real pedigree”. Christophe interjected, “Yeah, probably the car knows the way!”
Alfonso laughing, continued; “So I not only know that it's got a great record, so we must be careful not to ruin it, but because this is actually a proper part of history. So, we have to be a little bit respectful of the car. But I'm happy.”
Christophe; “Personally, I'm happy because, of course, I won Le Mans with a Peugeot. The Peugeot 905 was an unbelievable car, and this was one of the last wins for Peugeot at Le Mans. So, to drive 504 rally car, which from my memory as a kid, was a really famous car in France, will be special, the 504 was really a great car. They had many cars on the street and then I remember my father had one.”
Alfonso; “I think together we will respect the car, we have known each other for a long time and get on very well. When I first met Christophe as a matter of fact, I was irritating all the time for him, he was like who's is this guy? We did a lot of racing, Prototype racing, Group C racing, with Kremer Racing, people like that. Then in 1999 I literally won the last race of the year, woke up next morning and never wanted to race again. I never raced again as a driver. Now, I love the engineering part, I love the navigation. I did a lot of navigation for the Paris Dakar and Peking to Paris, but I don't like driving anymore, it doesn't mean anything to me. There are drivers, even f1 drivers, that will just get up one morning and never want to race again.”
“On the Peking to Paris you go through so many different sceneries and different countries and meet so many different people, that even though it's a race, there's just so much more to it. And that's what I loved about it last year. But I was thinking as I arrived in Paris, I'm never going do this again, like you do when you do a 24-hour race, you finish, and you're, no way. I don't want to do this again and about a week later, it already started. Then we started talking about it, and just well, here we are, you know, it's fine”.
Christophe; “I agree with that, I did Le Mans 20 times and there is always a moment where you do a race which is hard, and then you are thinking, what I'm doing, why I am here? It's so hard, it's so difficult. But of course, when you look back, then you really know why you came. And then you enjoy it and think of all the history, it's great.”